A Lengthening of Shadows
by Chaos Githzerai
Summary: Shadows do not lengthen without a reason. In the Reverse, there was an era when the Renegade did not exist alone. A two-parter prologue to "The Truth Behind the Eclipse". Chaos Githzerai vs Nefertili. Full summary inside.
1. The Pearl and the Girasol

_Authors' Notes:_

_I'M STILL ALIVE! I know I should be working on Timeless, but chapter twelve requires me to be in a specific moodset which has, unfortunately, been quite elusive in me reaching thanks to the oh so wonderful (note the sarcasm here) new live-in neighbors that moved in back in March. I'll still work on it, don't worry, and I'll be much calmer once I've moved out of the hellhole where I'm currently living, which should be very soon now. Anyway! This two-shot project and the multi-chapter story which will be following it is the product of discussions between myself and my co-author over on DA concerning the Sinnoh Dragon Trio, and this project has been in development since last year, and I'm quite excited that we've finally begun to get this underway and I hope that those of you who have read and enjoyed Timeless will enjoy this little project as well._

_-- Chaos_

_Some vital info (read or you'll be confused): this is a "behind the scenes" type of prologue for an upcoming multi-chaptered fic, and hence some points are intentionally left open-ended. The story combines mythology elements from the Pokémon games (specifically Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum) and some major events from the movies (movies 10 and 11, but NOT movie 12), minus human intervention. The Reverse World retains its movie look and mechanism, but at this point it must be made clear that the reasons for Giratina's banishment into the Reverse Dimension, as well as the time frame in which it happened, are different from how it was brought forward in Platinum. This backstory is further explained by numbered notes at the end of the text, and will be one of the focal points in the main story, "The Truth Behind the Eclipse". Also, contrary to movie/game portrayals, Palkia has the ability to enter and leave the Reverse World at will (but her command over space is quite weak in that dimension)._

_Although the characters (both legendary and non-legendary) retain most of the powers and titles they have as Pokémon (such as the Renegade for Giratina and Spatial Dragon for Palkia), they are in gijinka (humanized) forms which are conceptualized by us. The Legends also have set genders in the story despite being mostly classified as genderless in the franchise. Giratina and Dialga are male while Palkia is female. If you have any trouble with this, please click the back button now._

_And lastly: this is NOT a CosmicRenegadeshipping (PalkiaxGiratina) fic. Whatever interactions the two dragons might have both in the prologue and in the main story do not have a romantic basis._

_-- Antarel Nefertili_

_As always, Pokemon is © to that wonderful mastermind, Satoshi Tajiri while the gijinka versions are © to Nefertili (Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina) and Chaos Githzerai (characters who have yet to appear). Special thanks go out to Ayaluki, the best beta reader we could ever ask for._

_**Full summary: **__Shadows lengthen before a complete eclipse, but the darkness does not come without a reason. In the Reverse, there was a time when the Renegade did not exist alone. A two-parter prologue to "The Truth Behind the Eclipse".

* * *

_

**A Lengthening of Shadows**

_Part I: _

_The Pearl and the Girasol_

Giratina sat alone, as usual. What was there to do but watch the unfolding events in the floating water spheres of the Reverse World -- the only link he had to the real world ever since that despicable Lucario [1] banished him to this place? If he was feeling angry, he would have vented out his emotions by picking a random sphere and shattering it, ignoring the fact that his actions would cause an explosion in the very place projected within the crystalline surface. Thankfully, the mood was not on him at present, and he was becoming increasingly aware that his moods had become limited to two as time passed: either angry or extremely dejected. Angry or dejected... no happiness either way, no. And nothing in between, at that.

"Lord Giratina."

The Renegade raised his head abruptly, hearing his name called from behind the sliding door of his chamber. It was a Shedinja, no doubt. A ghost-type like him, it had the ability to go through walls like a wraith, but fear of the legendary Ghost dragon prevented any of his underlings from even daring to pass into the walls of Giratina without his explicit permission.

"Enter," he said without emotion. The corpse-like thing floated right through the screen, shaking like a leaf being tossed about by a gale.

"There's an intruder, my Lord," the Shedinja said in deathly gasps.

'_Intruder?' _Giratina thought with surprise. Why, the Reverse World was such an effective prison that no one could freely get in or out of its strange clutches! Sure, he could manifest himself once in a while in the real world, but even then, those were gambles that he had to take. If anyone dared to ambush him at those moments, he would be in grave danger. A vast amount of power was needed to temporarily cross over to the other world, and he always felt exhausted after accomplishing just one of those feats.

Shaking those thoughts off his mind, the Renegade stood up and ordered the Shedinja to lead him to the new presence in the Reverse World. The mere fact that the thing managed to enter his domain without his calling was a thing to be amazed about. Surely, it had great power? Or on the other side, it got in by accident? Either way, Giratina saw his chance. If the intruder could help him get rid of the seal that prevented him from leaving the Reverse World, it would be very advantageous indeed. But if it was uncooperative, or turned out to be the product of a fluke, then the matter was easily taken care of. His dungeons were always ready for new occupants. That is, if the Ghost dragon didn't decide to kill them first.

* * *

The intruder obviously _wasn't _a weakling, Giratina realized at once when he surveyed the damage on a forested pillar. Clearly, several of his Sableye and Shedinja had tried to put the visitor in its place and in return, it counterattacked. The pillar was almost entirely severed in two, and the remains of his minions floated pitifully in the low-gravity pull of the Reverse World. Even if the intruder got into his world by accident, Giratina decided that he would do everything he could to bring that power to his side.

It took a while for him and his band of Sableye and Shedinja to locate the visitor, but in time they finally caught sight of it flying near the ice pillars, clearly fascinated by the unusual formation. Giratina ordered his underlings to a halt while he flew to intercept the creature as it finished circling one of the frosty columns. Both he and the unknown entity received a shock upon seeing each other.

The intruder was female. She had long dark purple hair and a complexion so pale it almost looked like polished ivory. Her garments, likewise, came in pale shades of purple, gray, and cream, and where her arms met her shoulders she wore unusual arm bangles embedded with two rosy-colored pearls. But what surprised Giratina most were her ruby-red eyes accentuated by smoky reddish-brown eyeshadow -- features which strangely matched the Renegade's. She stopped at mid-flight upon seeing him approaching to cut through her path, but she had a look in her eyes that was more challenging than fearful. Giratina knew he should not take her easily.

Assuming an authoritative air, he demanded, "Who are you to trespass into this world? The Reverse World is my domain; no one enters or leaves this place without my consent."

The maiden didn't answer at once, but looked at him thoughtfully as though reading his strengths and weaknesses. The power of her gaze nearly made him blush. No one had dealt with him so calmly before.

"What are _you_ staring at?" she abruptly asked. Giratina felt his temper beginning to fume. How _dare_ she be so insolent to him, the Lord of the Reverse World?

"You ask me that question when _you _are the one who should be sorry for barging in here where you don't belong," Giratina snapped back, adjusting his stance to a more combative one. "Now tell me your name before I kill you."

Initially, she didn't appear to want to answer the threat-question. Giratina was about to make himself disappear and launch his Shadow Force, when she began to laugh. He was really angry now. She was already treading on thin ice by mocking him.

"Peace, Master of the Reverse World," she said, raising her hands. Even though she no longer laughed, she still retained a friendly smile. "Let there be no blood shed between us; I didn't mean to offend you. You want my name? It's Palkia."

The sudden change of attitude caught Giratina off-guard. Having gotten used to the aura of fear in his castle, he was quite unused to seeing a pleasant face, let alone knowing that person's name. Even then, something vague flashed in his mind upon hearing her name, Palkia. Giratina had an inkling that he had heard of that name somewhere in his distant past, before he was sealed, but it was so long ago that his memory failed him. Not that it made any difference now; at least he already knew by what name the intruder went.

Palkia tilted her head to the side, obviously perplexed by his sudden silence.

"Well?" she asked softly. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself too, Master of the Reverse World?"

Giratina gave a start upon hearing her voice. Regaining his composure, he said, "You mean you do not know me?"

She didn't miss the haughtiness in his statement, but rather than taunting him, Palkia replied, "Unfortunately, I do not know. But then again, I am not one to be called ever-knowing."

He mulled over her words for some time, trying to find a leeway to prevent her from knowing his name. Finally, he said, "I do not see why you should have the privilege of knowing who I am, if you are about to meet your end in my hands."

Palkia let out a laugh once more, the reverberating sound heard so rarely in the gloom of the Reverse World.

"I take that as a challenge," she said, her smile changing to something more unreadable. Giratina noted that her fingernails, previously smooth white ovals of porcelain, were beginning to elongate into sharpened claws that glinted in the reflected light of the ice pillars. "Well, I accept it. You are welcome to duel with me, so please give me a good fight."

Giratina unfastened the black cloak he wore and threw it to his underlings, who hurriedly took it in for their master as he fought. Readying himself, he said, "With pleasure."

He had intended it to be a mere way of testing how strong his adversary was, but after a few exchanges of attacks Giratina began to fathom if he had bitten more than he could chew. Her claws promptly took on the yellow-orange glow of Dragon Claw as she launched her first attack. Pitting Dragon Claw against Dragon Claw, Giratina managed to neutralize the attack before it could cause him damage, but it soon became evident that Palkia was more agile than he was. Apparently, she also realized this advantage, because she began to make use of her speed to heighten her evasiveness, her form blurring as she darted in and out of the Reverse World's pillar forms with a strange liquid grace. At one point, Palkia even managed to hit him from behind with a particularly strong barrage of AncientPower. Giratina grunted. She was some female, indeed.

"Quick-footed, aren't you?" he remarked, narrowly avoiding yet another attack of Dragon Claw.

"You're not that bad, you know," Palkia smiled in reply, shooting up in the air while he shot out blue flames of Will-o-Wisp at her. Harnessing vapors in her hands, she managed to magnify the moisture into a formidable Surf attack, putting out the flames at once, while leaving enough of its ferocity to engulf her opponent in a spray of water.

Giratina may have resisted Water-type attacks due to his Dragon-Ghost typing, but the sheer force of the Surf was enough to make him crash against a rock column which cracked upon impact. Cursing himself, he decided to make use of his signature move, Shadow Force. Concentrating his aura within himself, Giratina successfully made himself invisible from all eyes for that moment.

On her part, Palkia was surprised to find her claws meet air the moment he executed the first stage of Shadow Force. However, she knew that he was just around, hidden within the deceptively empty space. She let herself float into a blank area unhindered by the land and ice structures, closing her eyes and using her own aura to feel the bends and twists of space around her.

A sharp twist of the spatial fabric above her made her head spin. Giratina rematerialized, clamping his hand about her throat whilst the abrupt assault of ghostly energy made Palkia briefly see spots on her vision. He pushed her against an ice column, while he gathered his energy on his free hand to land the finishing blow.

"So sorry to end it like this," Giratina whispered directly into her ear. "But I'll have you know that I _enjoyed_ our fight."

Palkia, who was previously limp with her eyes unfocused, suddenly smirked and moved her ruby-red gaze to meet his. Her right hand shot out and grasped his free arm, and Giratina let out a yell of pain as a blast of purple energy, like a large crescent tearing at the very fabric of space itself, sent him crashing to the base of the ice formation. The shock of the fall, as well as the power of her Spatial Rend, was enough to send the breath out of his body, and he blacked out.

* * *

Giratina was disoriented when he regained consciousness. To his surprise, he found himself in his chambers, in his very own fortress. A Shedinja hovered at the foot of his bedside, but upon realizing that the lord of the castle had awakened, it scurried out of the room hurriedly. Giratina was too fresh from sleep to offer the thing a reprimand, so he let it go.

Testing his strength, he shakily got to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. A stool had been placed near his bed, and on it was the black cloak that he usually wore, folded neatly. Considering it to be the least of his troubles as of the moment, the Renegade made his way to the full-body mirror near the corner of the room, his movements becoming stronger with each step. Giratina gazed at his face on the mirror. Long grayish hair swept up in a high ponytail... skin with the pallor of a Ghost-type... he appeared unchanged, as though mocking his earlier defeat in the hands of that female.

Palkia.

Speaking of, where was she? Was she already gone? Although in his hindsight, Giratina reasoned that it was well and good that she had left, a part of him continued to be fascinated by the power she had shown, and with it, a fragment of his mind continued to hope that someone like her could help him be free of the Reverse World permanently. Besides, he was quite disappointed that he wasn't able to tell her who he was. Or did she already know? Surely, she could have gotten that information by giving one of his minions the right threats...

Sighing to himself, Giratina tore his gaze from the mirror. Retrieving his cloak, he wrapped the dark fabric about him and went out of his sleeping chamber. Several Sableyes prostrated before him as he stepped out, and he regarded them coldly, like the minions he considered them to be.

"Is she still here?" he demanded more than asked, expecting them to know at once who that 'she' was.

"She is back at the ice pillars, my lord," one of them replied in a quivering voice. "She seems intent on fixing the damage by herself, sir."

Hearing this bit of news from his underling made the Renegade alarmed. Although he hated the Reverse World as his prison, he had considered it his responsibility to maintain its integrity. If the ice columns had been damaged because of their fight, then he had to do something about it. He may not have cared if a glacier in the real world was destroying a town because their corresponding ice pillars were destroyed, but to see the beautiful formations in disorder was something even he could not tolerate.

Quickly levitating himself out of his castle, Giratina made his way to the area in question. True enough, he did see her there, a slender figure robed in pale colors, her dark hair flowing behind as she completed a spiral around a broken column, fixing the gash in the shining ice. He counted how many pillars were still in need of repair, and he saw a handful. Quietly, he flew up to her. Palkia almost jumped to see him there all of a sudden.

"I'll handle it from here," he said, and not waiting for her to affirm the order, he proceeded to complete the same spiral dance around the remaining pillars. Giratina was so intent on performing his duty that it took him a while to realize that Palkia continued to hover with him, contributing her own powers of regeneration to the job. He admonished her several times more, until he finally gave in and they settled into a comforting pace of spirals, healing the columns with their abilities.

After the final turn, they both paused to gather their breath before they descended to the pillar's base. Palkia folded her arms and surveyed the glittering ice, obviously happy with their work.

"I guess we did it," she said.

"Yes," Giratina agreed with a nod, but chose to change the subject afterwards. "You got me back to my castle, didn't you?"

She nodded slowly, her ruby-red eyes softening slightly.

"How long was I out for the count?"

"A couple of hours," Palkia replied, gently touching the crystalline surface with her fingertips. Giratina noticed that her nails were no longer the claws that they previously were, in their fight. "It took me some time to convince your Shedinja and Sableye to tell me where you stayed, but..." She then looked him in the eye before saying her next words. "I am very sorry to have caused this racket, and for killing several of your servants upon my entry. I know I shouldn't have let my curiosity get hold of me and enter your place, but I am very happy to have met you."

'_I am very happy to have met you.'_

Her last statement rang in Giratina's head like a stubborn echo. He did not consider himself to be an overly sentimental person, but it was not like him to receive that positive kind of greeting, especially not from someone he had just battled with. Palkia had turned away to continue observing the icy formation beneath her hand, oblivious to the fact that Giratina's lips had curved up into a kind of bitter smile.

'_You do not know me,' _he thought. _'You will not be willing to say those words again once you have found out all that I have done to merit this banishment...' _His smile hardened upon recalling the memories he so despised, and his longing to be free of his prison began to poison his growing amazement and wonder of this strange female standing beside him._ 'For all your power, Palkia, I could still sway you. It is still not too late for you to be my ally, and I'll make sure that you'll be of use to me.'_

Keeping his plans to himself, Giratina cleared his throat and straightened his expression.

"It's all right," he said. "Your actions were of self-defense, I understand. You have asked my name before, haven't you? The information is well-earned. I am called Giratina, and I really meant what I said when I enjoyed our battle earlier."

Palkia's hand left the icy surface, and she looked at him with a small smile.

"You are powerful, Giratina," she said. "That much I could infer after we exchanged attacks. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have a match with you."

"You're welcome."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them.

"I... I should get back home," Palkia said suddenly, throwing an apologetic look at her new-met friend. "My brother will be very worried about me."

"Are you sure you could get out of here all by yourself?" Giratina didn't doubt that Palkia could get into the Reverse World, but did she possess the ability to leave it?

"I am quite sure," she replied, preparing to take off to the air in flight. "Giratina, I'll see you soon, okay?"

Giratina wondered if she could fulfill this promise, but he nodded. He watched her as she rent the invisible fabric of space with the same purple energy that she used in their previous battle, feeling deeply envious of her ability to do so. He was caught off-guard, however, when she gave him a final wave upon the completion of the portal, and a little wave of his hand was all that he could give back before she was gone completely.

* * *

He honestly didn't expect her to keep her word, so Giratina was unmistakably baffled several days later when one of his servants reported to him that Palkia was back, and wished to see him. This time, he received her a lot more warmly, even though he still retained selfish purposes which he hid from view.

"Do my servants frighten you?" Giratina asked her, watching her sip the tea which a particularly ragged-looking Shedinja had delivered in their presence. He ought to make sure that the job fell to a more respectable-looking retainer later on.

"No, not really," Palkia said, smiling from the cup with its fragrant contents. "And this is also very good, you know." Of course, she was talking about the tea.

Giratina twisted a portion of his cloak with a bit of embarrassment.

"It is? I'm sorry I have nothing better to offer, but I don't usually receive visitors."

"No, really, this is all right," Palkia assured him. Although she didn't say anything, privately she had already deduced that Giratina preferred to be alone, and that even though he had plenty of servants at his beck and call, they were not what he considered to be good companions and he treated them accordingly.

"What made you stop by?" Giratina asked.

Palkia shrugged, lowering the teacup.

"I don't actually know," she said slowly, "but there was so much that we could have talked about before, and yet we used up our time battling each other. Besides, your world fascinates me. Would you mind giving me a tour?"

The phrase of her words suggested that she was jesting, but her expression and voice were serious. Giratina instinctively searched for a possible reason why she wanted to learn so much about the Reverse World. Was she testing its weaknesses? Did she want to rule or exploit it? Furthermore, was she planning to drive him from it and claim the place as her own? Palkia must have noticed his sudden thoughtfulness, for she immediately began to take back the suggestion.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

Giratina snapped out of his daydreams and assured her that he would be more than happy to do so.

'_Either way,' _he added to himself, _'I get to gain some influence if I have something like her to link me to the real world. Even if she decides to drive me out, it would be my pleasure, and I can finally have my revenge on that Ren and his descendants [2].'

* * *

_

Giratina's perception of his own world underwent a gradual change as he accompanied Palkia to the various landmarks in the Reverse Dimension while he himself described how disturbances within the Reverse World had a direct impact on events in the real world. It was as though in explaining to her about the wonders of his world, Giratina had unveiled the hidden beauty of his otherwise cloistering prison. The water spheres floating in various locations... the landscapes which mirrored each other where the horizon should be... the sharp drops and rises of the pull of gravity... and not the least, the places where ice formed columns, where he knew both he and Palkia shared a kind of joint memory, all seemed transformed in his eyes. Although he despised the Reverse World and longed to be free of it, he was quite amazed that he had failed to see its beauty before.

Palkia, on the other hand, listened attentively to what he had to say, and if he had any doubts about her fascination with the curiosities of the Reverse World, Giratina's beliefs were narrowed down to two: either Palkia was a great actress to have feigned such enthusiasm, or she had a genuine love for the warped dimensions. It was hard for him to imagine how someone from the real world could stand being at such an unfamiliar place that broke the rules of science, but he kept his opinion to himself and concentrated on earning the trust of his new link to reality.

"You should see how the place is transformed at sunset and dusk," Giratina told her as they stopped to rest at a landmark dotted with caves.

"I'd very much love to see it," Palkia replied, a pensive expression on her face. She then looked at Giratina questioningly. "Do you see the stars from here?"

"The stars?" Giratina repeated, doubt in his tone. "No, all that the Reverse World could get is a rough echo of their light, through the spheres here." He motioned to a floating round water crystal hovering nearby, picturing the scene of a seashore. _'Come to think of it, I haven't actually seen the stars as they shone in the sky for a long, long time...'_

Palkia appeared to read his thoughts.

"Don't you miss seeing them?"

He sighed a long, disappointed sigh, which was enough of an answer for Palkia.

"For some reason I feel uncomfortable not seeing those entities of space above me at night," she said, gathering her thick dark purple hair into a twisted coil over her shoulder. Giratina, who had been observing her, knew that he ought to make an effort to prolong the conversation.

"And why is that?"

The answer he got was as cryptic as her expression.

"Because space lives on my breath."

* * *

One night, Giratina found himself unable to sleep. After fitfully tossing and turning on his bed, he got up and faced his reflection on the mirror. He knew clearly well what (or more precisely, _who_) was bothering him.

Palkia.

_Why are you thinking about her at this time?_

There's something... about her.

"_Space lives on my breath," she said. Isn't that a big giveaway? But why can't you remember?_

What _is_ there to remember?

_Who is she?_

She is a Dragon who could harness Water. Quite unusual. She is nowhere like a Kingdra either.

_Is she becoming something more to you?_

Perhaps she is different.

"_Space lives on my breath," she said. Of course, she is different. Her powers are different. You want her powers._

You want her trust. Furthermore, you want something else from her...

_And what would that be?_

Shutting the debating voices from his mind, Giratina turned away from the mirror and went to the balcony, searching for the points of light that were hidden from the world where he currently lay, unable to escape.

* * *

Palkia continued to visit the Reverse World in a time frame spanning months. Giratina, who used to be so meticulous in counting how many hours she spent in his world, soon got so used to her presence that he was surprised to find out that they had been corresponding for such a long period. One time, she even stayed long enough to witness the sunset in the Reverse World, and she found it as stunning as Giratina had promised.

"It's amazing how it could be sunset and yet the sun doesn't shine in the sky," she remarked.

"Well, there isn't really any 'sky' here, you know," he said, noting how the ground mirrored the sky.

Palkia answered back with twinkling eyes, "Of course."

"But still, I'm sorry I couldn't get to show you the stars from here," he said, looking at the rule-breaking bluish sphere forming the outskirts of the Reverse World. They sat beneath a low tree with a magnificent view of their beloved ice columns. The orange-red light of the projected sunset was captured by the icy crystals in a breathtaking fashion.

"But you really do want to see them, don't you?" Palkia asked suddenly, looking at him closely. Giratina, however, avoided her gaze. She then decided to bring up a topic which she had been trying to avoid all this time. "Why do you fear crossing over to the real world, Giratina? I appreciate all that you have shown me about the Reverse World, I really do. For that reason, there is so much I want to show you too. And I don't just mean the 'real' world. There are other dimensions of space, and you wouldn't believe how one's reality could be transformed by them."

"I'm sure that would be wonderful," Giratina said quickly, hoping that she would let go of the topic. "But I cannot leave this place."

"You say that all the time," Palkia replied. "But can't you make an exception just once?"

"Don't you understand, _I can't!"_

His sudden outburst made her silent, and her face took on a worried expression to see Giratina so distressed.

"I am trapped here," he continued, his fists clenching on his lap. "I cannot leave. This is my world and I shall not know any other. You do not know how much it _pains _me to see you freely move from here to _there_ knowing that I cannot be free! Knowing that I cannot... I cannot..." Giratina broke off and shut his eyes. Spatters of tears formed wet circles as they fell on his clenched fingers.

Gentle fingers snapped him out of his sudden descent into misery. Palkia had crept closer to where he sat sobbing, and quietly placed one of her hands on his back, rubbing gently. The action had an unexpected calming effect on the Renegade, and he was able to take several deep breaths to pull himself together.

"I have made a fool of myself, haven't I?" Giratina said softly, too embarrassed to look her in the eye.

"Hush," she whispered, continuing to rub gentle circles on his back. "That tale can wait. Forgive me for asking about it in the first place."

"No," Giratina said firmly, causing Palkia to momentarily stop her actions. Realizing that he may have passed the wrong message, he gingerly got a hold of her free hand, saying, "No, it's time you knew, Palkia. I am a banished outcast. I am here for a reason... some wrong I have done long ago. I do not deny that I have tried to escape this place many times, only to miserably fail after each try. Being locked up has set my mind into a single purpose: to be free of the Reverse World, and I'd be willing to go to any means to achieve it. When you came here, I _knew_ you were the very person I needed... someone who has the ability to cross the spatial dimensions. I'll... I'll admit that I had wanted to earn your trust for that purpose but... I have realized..." Gathering his courage, he met her squarely in her ruby-red eyes.

"You have realized what, Giratina?" she asked slowly, the tone of her voice devoid of all emotions.

"I realized that I already see you as... what they call a _friend_." Giratina doubted whether he sounded convincing, but he knew his words to be true. "I did put up a show of wanting to correspond with you, hoping that you would soon trust me enough and break my seal, but in the end that worked against me... I _know _now. I no longer care if I could not leave the Reverse World, as long as you stayed on, Palkia. I understand now that I want nothing more than to explore the inner recesses of this world with you or to simply sit among the ice columns which you helped me repair..."

Giratina broke off. The light was becoming dim, so dark it had become. Palkia's silence hovered like a deathly presence, but she did not pull her hand from the Renegade's grasp nor inch away, and he took it as a good sign.

"Palkia...?"

"You wished to see the stars, didn't you?" she asked in a gentle tone.

Giratina was confused. Didn't he just expose his treachery? She wasn't about to desert him after all that he had just said?

Heaving a sigh, Palkia gave his hand a comforting squeeze, saying, "Atonement and redemption come in strange ways, my friend. Even though you haven't told me about the weight of that 'wrong' which merited this banishment, I do know that you are capable of _something_ more than evil, and that knowledge will come first and foremost to me whenever I think of you. Even if I have not the power to break heaven's judgment, I will do all that I can for you to at least see the stars, and to feel their warmth even from this place." Interrupting herself, she reiterated the old question, "So, didn't you wish to see the stars, Giratina?"

Even though he could not understand much of what she said, he answered, "Yes, I have always wanted to see them with my own eyes once more."

Palkia then briefly touched her palm against his cheek in a gesture of comfort. "And so you shall."

Giratina blinked, and he put up his hands to cover his eyes from the sudden brightness that temporarily made them go blind. Finally, his vision adjusted, and he saw Palkia with a glowing object in her hands, which she threw high up in the night air. He then realized that it wasn't one object, but several points of light which began to glow with their own fire. She then told him to hold out his hands, and over his palms she let one of the tiny gas spheres hover. It felt hot and alive, and yet the heat did not burn... a tiny star, right at his own hands.

* * *

"They are not like the stars I usually kindle for the real world," she explained. "They are much, much larger, with longer lives and deadly fires, but this and the other ones I have given life here and now are stars just the same. I can't employ the same methods I use for the real world, knowing how the Reverse World warps the forces, and by morning their lights would dim, but at least for tonight, you have seen them."

He looked at her, and he felt himself smiling truly, for the first time in many a long while.

"You didn't have to... but I thank you, nonetheless," he said. "How do you do all these things, Palkia? Just what is the extent of your power?"

To this question, she once more gave her cryptic smile and answer, "Didn't I tell you that space lives on my breath?"

Later that night, Giratina placed a cover over the mirror in his room, the warmth of the star she had given him to hold still radiating from his hands.

* * *

Palkia didn't return to see him several days after that beautiful night, but Giratina wasn't that worried about her. However, when the poisonous clouds began to appear all over the Reverse World and he saw an image of her being projected into the numerous water spheres, he felt a kind of alarm and apprehension like no other. The images of her were soundless, but their message was clear as the crystals portrayed her in the middle of a battle with a male who oddly resembled her... he who was no other than her brother, Dialga.

Giratina stared helplessly at the moving projections. That male was undoubtedly her brother; that much, he knew from his conversations with Palkia. For the first time, he got to see them fighting with weapons, he with dual broadswords while she wielded a kind of twin metal fans through which she harnessed her signature purple energy with much more accuracy. She looked as deadly and graceful as she always did, but Giratina's eyes widened in shock upon noticing that Palkia's left shoulder was bleeding. Clearly, she had sustained injuries and that wound looked quite bad...

"Damn it!" he shouted after quickly probing, testing any of the possible exit points of the Reverse World. None of them showed any desire to yield to him. Never had he wanted to get out of the Reverse Dimension so badly. Palkia... she needed his help. He had to get to her before that _thing _she called a brother killed her.

Finally, after being exhausted dodging the black clouds of sickening poison in his futile search for escape, Giratina retreated back to his castle where he continued to watch the unfolding drama with clenched fists.

'_He will pay,' _Giratina thought to himself, letting the image of Palkia's adversary imprint itself into his mind.

* * *

_The young blue-haired man landed beside the lake in a half crouch, remaining that way before he rose to his full height, his ruby gaze upon the sky as he looked back over his shoulder, a few wisps of blue hair falling over the diamond embedded upon the front of his battle armor. _

"_Sis... I'm so sorry..." he whispered, a few tears falling down his face, leaving crystalline trails upon his skin. "I'm so, so sorry... That... that... _monster_... back there wasn't me..."_

_Giving vent to a long, drawn-out sigh, Dialga raised a hand to push his hair back over his shoulder before he moved to kneel beside the pristine water._

'Just a quick drink, then I'll continue on...' _he thought, moving to dip his hands into the cool liquid, knowing that it would help his throat, which was sore from all the yelling he had done while he had... fought... his sister..._

_Dialga had barely even taken a sip of the water cupped within his hands when the world around -- no -- _beneath_ him suddenly turned dark, warping into what seemed to be a whirlwind of dark purple energy mixed with that of silvery-blue. Ruby eyes wide, the Time Dragon moved to leap to one side... or he _tried_ to anyway; the whirlwind had him trapped within its center, and no matter how much he struggled against it, Dialga was unable to free himself._

"_What's happening? Who's doing this?" he cried, not caring that it wasn't making his throat any better. The winds continued to howl around him, whipping his long, blue hair about. Then came a voice through the pandemonium of the winds:_

"_How lucky of me to have caught you at last!"_

_By the pitch and tone, the voice was undoubtedly male, but, other than this, Dialga didn't know _who_ was addressing him, but by the tone, the speaker had a malicious intent..._

"_Excuse m--" Dialga had begun to snap back in an angry reply, but, suddenly, a shadowy arm had extended from the center of the whirlwind, locking itself tightly around the blue-haired man's neck and cutting off his reply. Gasping, Dialga raised his hands to claw at the limb which was now holding him, unable to think coherently enough to remember his dual broadswords._

_This was the third time in his life that the Time Overseer felt true fear as he felt his currently unknown captor beginning to pull him down into the center of the whirlwind, and no matter how hard he struggled to free himself, Dialga was unable to break free. _

_There was an instant of darkness before the Time Dragon found himself in... well... he had no idea where the hell _here_ was. This... place?... was something he had never before seen in his long years of existence: there were bits of land which appeared to be floating, and where a sky should be, there was a perfect reflection of everything there, save for the fact that the reflection was... upside down._

'What the hell...? Such a place makes absolutely _no sense_! It shouldn't even exi--'

"_Ungh...!" The young man gasped when he felt himself slam back first into something hard, knocking the breath from his lungs. He forced himself to open his eyes, and he finally got a good look at the one who had pulled him into this strange place: _

_The man was clad in robes of red, black, gray and gold, with a longer outer cloak of the darkest shade of black Dialga had ever seen -- like a living shadow. His dark gray hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and a golden half-helm framed the sallow features of his face. What drew Dialga's attention most, however, were his ruby-red eyes... eyes not so different from his own, but this man's eyes burned --_ smoldered _-- with unfathomable rage and malice. It was then that Dialga remembered..._

'You...!'

_This was the same man from his vision, the same which had driven Dialga into the maddened rage which had caused him to lash out at his own sister when she had tried to comfort him. And now... now... his vision was coming to pass..._

_Dialga felt himself being yanked to his feet, and while the other man no longer had his arm locked around the Time Dragon's neck, he now held Dialga by the throat, his grip tightening and threatening to completely cut off the younger man's breath._

"_Now... how shall I go about killing you, mm?" the man said, his tone as malevolent as the glare in his eyes as he ran his gaze over the younger man, and Dialga's eyes widened considerably when the man's gaze fell upon the diamond embedded within his armor at his chest. "Ah..."_

'No... not there...! Got to... get... free...!'

_In a last ditch effort, Dialga gathered all of his strength and kicked out with his right leg, striking the older man in the abdomen when he was pulling his arm back in preparation to destroy Dialga's diamond with his bare hand. The Time Dragon would have smirked at seeing the look upon the man's face if Dialga weren't being choked at the moment, but getting free was far more important than grasping for even a mite of satisfaction at having actually hurt his foe. Wasting no time, Dialga squeezed the man's wrist at where he knew the pressure points were, and he felt himself drop to the ground when his captor released him. Again, Dialga wasted no time in following up with a leg sweep aimed for his foe's ankles, the attack catching the shadowy figure off-guard and causing him to stumble back a few steps._

_With a grunt, Dialga pushed off from the ground, his gaze focused upon the still open portal._

'Got to get back... got to get OUT OF HERE...!' _he thought over and over, silently cursing how slowly his re-emergence into the real world was going, and he was halfway through when he felt a harsh tug upon the trailing edge of his robe, his flight halted._

"_Damn it!" he snarled, feeling himself being pulled back into the odd realm, and he kicked downward as hard as he could, the cry of pain he heard music to his ears as he felt his foe release the hem of his robe. Again, Dialga began to flee, and he took a second to glance back over his shoulder -- to see that the older man was chasing him. Ignoring the growing pang of fear within his chest, the Time Overseer continued his flight, only to cry out in surprise when his foe_ appeared right in front of him.

_The other man held his gloved hands together in front of his chest, a ball of silver-blue energy manifesting between his open palms. Dragon Rage. Cursing silently, Dialga tried to stop his forward momentum, but in a motion which belied his appearance, the man sent the Dragon-type attack careening towards the young man, and Dialga gritted his teeth, keeping himself from crying out and having only enough time to raise his arms to cover his diamond when the energy struck him full force in the chest, the force of the blow enough to send him flying backwards. He brushed against several dark clouds in the process, and he involuntarily gagged at the sudden lightheadedness they gave him, as though they were made of poison._

"_Sh-shit..." the young man growled, fighting to regain control before he once again resumed his flight, and he felt himself flinch when he saw the golden-yellow light from a Hyper Beam out of the corner of his eyes, the attack just barely missing him and striking a piece of land. Swallowing the urge to scream a long and colorful stream of curses that would make even Darkrai blush, Dialga once again set his sights upon the portal, which was now slowly beginning to close. Closer... closer... YES!_

'Come on... COME ON! Faster, damn you, FASTER!' How _could Palkia stand traveling between dimensions with something as damn slow as a lousy portal when time travel was so much quicker? Again, Dialga was halfway through when he felt a hard tug upon the hem of his robe, and again, he was being pulled back through._

'That's IT!' "Why_ are you doing this?_ What_ did I ever do to you?" Dialga cried, not caring that he was running his poor voice hoarse by screaming more. He drew his twin blades as he whirled around to face his foe. "Tell me, damn it! TELL ME!"_

"_Look around you."_

_The voice was low and cold, enough to silence the Time Deity. Dialga fought the urge to shiver; he was too paralyzed with fear to do as the man commanded, and cold sweat was breaking out on his hands where they feverishly grasped his weapons. His opponent chuckled darkly._

"_See those clouds?" the older man continued softly, motioning to one of the dark wisps floating lazily around a landmass. "They form when colossal forces cause such damage to the real world that they need to be taken in _somewhere_ else…but that's not the point." He closed his eyes briefly before his face and tone took on a more terrifying expression. "You tried to kill her, you _monster_. You tried to KILL HER!"_

'Her?' _"Wh-- who?" Dialga's voice cracked as he tried to answer back. "Just _who_ are you talking about!"_

"_Are you _that_ daft, boy? I know about the fight you had with Palkia. You _hurt_ her -- nearly _**killed**_ her! You have no right to call Palkia your sister, monster."_

"_I..." Dialga's eyes widened. This man _knew_ about what happened between Dialga and his sister? But... _how?_ Movement out of the corner of his eyes caught Dialga's attention, and he looked over to see what appeared to be a floating globule of water, and inside the water... was a moving image. So, that was how this man knew... something here had shown Dialga fighting Palkia... _

_The blue-haired dragon felt tears beginning to sting at the corners of his eyes, but he blinked them back before he began to concentrate, the diamond upon his chest plate beginning to take on a lapis lazuli glow. It was something Dialga saved as a last resort, since it tended to take up a lot of his energy, but he felt that this was a _very_ good time for what he was about to do._

"_Finally fighting back now, are we?" the older man sneered, his eyes narrowed to mere slits. "It is useless to resist your fate, boy."_

"_I don't want to fight you..." Dialga whispered, crossing his broadswords over his diamond. The twin blades began taking on a purplish hue, said glow increasing in intensity before the young man quickly uncrossed his blades in a whirling motion, sending the ball of energy careening towards his foe. The older man snarled when the energy struck him, causing purplish lightning to crackle and snake around his form. "And, yes, I _can_ resist my fate. You don't know who I am, do you? Well, I'm not sticking around to tell you..."_

_With that, Dialga turned and slipped through the portal, which was by now a near narrow fit for him. He looked back over his shoulder, watching the damn thing close and disappear before he flew on, not stopping until he had reached the gardens of his father's palace, and there he collapsed upon the soft grass, completely spent as he finally allowed his tears to flow freely._

"_Dialga? Little brother, what's wrong?" came a voice that sounded far-off to him. Dialga felt the gentle pressure of a familiar hand on his shoulder. "You look like you were dragged through a wind storm."_

_The blue-haired man didn't move when Palkia knelt beside him and moved to brush his hair away from his tear-stained face, and he could only whisper one word, his voice too hoarse to work:_

"_Sh-sh-shadow..."

* * *

_

Shortly after Giratina attacked her brother and his subsequent escape, Palkia entered the Reverse World with such a furious aura that the Renegade cowered at her presence. The whites of her eyes were almost completely obliterated by an angry shade of red, and literal bolts of deadly aura shot out of her form, sending her hair and her surroundings flying in disarray.

"What have you done to Dialga, Giratina?" she demanded, and not waiting for the answer, she continued. "Why did you single him out for punishment? You saw it clearly; I also fired my attacks and thus contributed to the poisoning of the Reverse World. I take responsibility in this and I would have helped you, but is this really your sense of justice? If it is so, then I was severely mistaken about you."

Giratina barely managed to evade the sharp bursts of angry energy from her as he tried to explain.

"He hurt you," he answered. "And yet, Palkia, you still call him your younger brother?"

"You do not understand us at all, Giratina," she retorted. "We are more than just brother and sister. We maintain Time and Space. We have an Order than cannot be broken, and I cannot tolerate one who harms my Temporal brother."

At her words, Giratina suddenly understood everything about Palkia's abilities. Why she could travel through spatial dimensions... why she held the starry sky in reverence... _why she was so fascinated by the warped dimensions of the Reverse World..._

'_Space lives on my breath...'_

Palkia _was _Space, and she had been Space all along. She _was _the great Arceus's eldest daughter, and it was for that reason that her name was a vague memory in Giratina's mind, being a legendary being himself. He wondered greatly why he failed to make the connections in the many times he spent with her. But then again, _why _did she keep him in the dark about that identity of hers? _But _that didn't matter to him now, whoever Palkia turned out to be. He could not lose her.

"I cannot see you again," Palkia said. "We cannot see each other; not now that you have earned my brother's enmity. He saw _you _in a vision of the future, Giratina, and how you attacked him. That very vision drove him to madness and made him fight me. Things would have ended once the Oración was played, but you sealed fate by dragging Dialga into your world. Now he refuses to reconcile with you no matter how hard I tried to dissuade him. I cannot sacrifice my relationship with Dialga for the sake of the world. Either I must sever ties with you or with him, and my choice has been made."

Giratina felt utter desperation welling up from him. Palkia's words stung him like sharp needles, and he couldn't believe... _refused _to believe, that their friendship, which had _changed _him, _offered him hope_, was about to end, all because of the Time Deity's meddling. He knew it was hopeless to argue with her now, but he _had _to, because it was the only thing he had left.

"Palkia, are you really the person to let it all end like this? Aren't you the same Palkia who helped me bring the ice towers back to their former glory, the same Palkia who showed me the stars _just a few days ago? _I only wanted to protect you because you are my friend, and will always be."

His words seemed to calm her down a bit, for her hair settled down onto her back and shoulders instead of being driven about by her frenzied aura. It was then that he noticed... instead of her usual pearl bangle, her left shoulder was heavily bandaged.

"I am sorry, Giratina, but I must not allow Space to come in conflict with Time again, for _your _world's sake and for my own. I do not doubt your words, but the damage has been done and we have to part."

"Palkia..."

"Forgive me." She closed her eyes as she said so. "I am not happy with the way things turned out myself, and I would have done what I could to keep this from happening. But know this, Giratina... my words still hold true: I still believe that you are capable of _something_ more than evil. Remember, that knowledge will come first and foremost to me whenever I think of you. Farewell." She opened her eyes, and the red color had finally left her whites and returned back to her ruby-red irises. Giratina saw a crystalline tear escape from her eye, and he briefly caught the ghost of a smile which lingered on her face before she vanished, leaving him alone... permanently.

Giratina fell to his knees the moment all traces of her had gone. He felt at loss, utterly at loss... such feeling he had not felt since he was banished. Unconsciously, his train of thought went back to their prickly first meeting, and how a seemingly insignificant battle eventually transformed him to someone different.

* * *

"_What are _you_ staring at?"_

"_You ask me that question when you are the one who should be sorry for barging in here where you don't belong. Now tell me your name before I kill you."_

"_Peace, Master of the Reverse World. Let there be no blood shed between us; I didn't mean to offend you. You want my name? It's Palkia."

* * *

_

In the distance, he saw the ice pillars which held one of the most vivid memories he had with his only companion... how they did the spiral dance about the columns and fixed the crystals back to their places. But Palkia was now lost to him, and it was all Dialga's fault.

Dialga.

"_You who are akin to steel are the one I hate the most," _Giratina whispered numbly as the clouds of poison continued their deadly swirl about him.

_End

* * *

_

Notes:

[1] _Lucario _- this particular species lives as a clan, but circumstances have caused them to split from a single unified community into three.

[2]_ Ren and his descendants _- in the story, Giratina originally could go in and out of the Reverse World as he wished, but he did _something _to a particular Lucario named Ren that drove him to use a powerful kind of spell so as to seal Giratina into the Reverse World; since then, the Renegade had sworn vengeance against him.

[3] _Giratina's "amnesia" _- there _**is **_a reason why Giratina didn't know of the background of the Spacetime duo until Palkia told it herself (or why the two of them weren't particularly aware of the existence of the Renegade, for that matter), but it will be revealed later on as the story progresses.


	2. Fate's Mirror

_Authors' Notes:_

_Finally, this two-part prologue is done, and I wish to apologize for the long wait, but I've finally moved and things are much more peaceful and quiet where I live now, so I'll be able to concentrate better on writing. This part follows the backstory of another character who will be appearing in the main story, but that's all I'm going to say since I don't want to spoil anything for you guys. Also, to those of you who are also following Timeless, I am working on chapter twelve, so that should be finished and posted soon enough; however, timeless will be taking a back seat to the upcoming 'Truth Behind the Eclipse', so updates will be slow, but I promise, I __**will **__ still be working on that story as well. I've come to far to abandon it now, and this fandom is very sacred to me._

_-- Chaos_

_I apologize for the long author's notes in the previous chapter; we will do our best to keep them reaching those lengths from this time on. The events here happen approximately 10 years after "The Pearl and the Girasol" and one year before the main story. And as to some questions from the other prologue, Giratina's line ("...as long as you stayed on...") was NOT meant to be taken literally as "stay here, in the Reverse World". Rather, a better interpretation was "remain as my confidante," which applies even if Palkia wasn't in the Reverse. We appreciate constructive criticisms and do not want to be too stingy, but please understand that we feel emotions too. If it isn't too much to ask, kindly employ proper web etiquette, and keep nitpicking at minimum, okay? :) Enjoy the chapter!_

_-- Nefertili_

_As always, Pokemon is © to that wonderful mastermind, Satoshi Tajiri while the gijinka versions are © to Nefertili (Giratina) and Chaos Githzerai (Kuro). Special thanks go out to Ayaluki, the best beta reader we could ever ask for._

_Summary: Hostility exists between the Dark-types and the Ghosts. But when a Weavile comes across the deity that governs her kin's nemesis, she ends up forsaking all she has learned for an emotion that blinds. will things change? Or will it just be a mirror of another circumstance that fate shattered?

* * *

_

**A Lengthening of Shadows**

_Part II: _

_Fate's Mirror_

It was a dark night within the forest, the seemingly dead, leafless branches of the trees coated with frost and ice as if the Frozen One, Articuno, had breathed upon them herself. Night creatures called to one another, and the half-moon hung overhead, like a pale jewel against the inky darkness of the sky. Such beauty was all but oblivious to a dark figure that moved through the forest, dead leaves crunching underneath her feet as she fled. The season's cold grasp upon the land, she knew, was the only thing keeping her from collapsing to the ground from exhaustion, as ice _was_ her sub-element after all. Fire, however, was her enemy, and she gave vent to a soft hiss as a wave of pain from the wound on her side caused her to stumble and nearly lose her balance, but years of training allowed her to keep from breaking her stride.

She was a Weavile, easily distinguished by her amaranth hair and the elliptical rune-like tattoo upon her forehead as well as by the black and magenta coloration of her garb, the style of which was that found amongst the ranks of a clan of ninjas known only as 'The Sisterhood'. She allowed herself to spare a fleeting second to look back over her shoulder in order to see if her pursuer was still giving chase, and her amber eyes widened when a cluster of fireballs, their flames an eerie shade of blue rather than the shades of orange or red associated with the element, coalesced into being somewhere behind her, forming a circle before something unseen launched them towards her.

In an action which now came as naturally to her as breathing, the young woman paused long enough to channel shards of ice into her hands before, in a swift motion, she hurled them back at the Will-o-wisp flames in hopes of at least nullifying the fire-based attack. This done, she resumed her flight, not even bothering to look back and see if she had been able to thwart the attack of her unseen foe. She knew that somehow she _had_ to get _away_ before the thing which gave chase killed her.

A startled yelp left her when the ground practically decided to slant downward without her realizing it, and this time, she was unable to regain her balance as her momentum now worked against her, causing her to go crashing down the hill in a very ungraceful manner before she slid to a stop at the bottom. Growling a curse through clenched teeth, she forced herself back to her feet before she tried to catch her breath, taking the moment to allow her gaze to do a quick sweep of her surroundings. The hill led to a lake, the majority of it surrounded by thick brambles and other vegetation which flourished upon the forest floor as well as by many close set trees, oaks by the look of them. Since it was winter, however, the woman knew that the brambles would have no leaves, and she was too exhausted and not in the mood to deal with the prickly branches _at all_.

Moving to draw her knives, the Weavile advanced a few steps towards the lake, its frozen surface inviting her to lay down upon it so she could finally get the past few days of rest she had missed -- and in order to allow the burn caused by the Fire Punch attack that had wounded her to heal. She froze, the hairs upon the back of her neck standing straight on end when a hollow sound came to her ears, sounding vaguely like laughter.

"Come out, fiend..." she hissed, eyes narrowing as she tried to keep her already high levels of fear at bay, not knowing from where her foe would attempt to strike at her next.

She was unable to help the gasp that left her when, suddenly, she was enveloped by an eerie blue aura, and a powerfully vivid image of a single blood-red eye filled her mind, staring maliciously at her -- even when she squeezed her own eyes tightly shut, her hands involuntarily releasing their grip upon her knives, the twin blades clattering to the ground.

'_Mean Look...!_' she realized, her fear level rising high enough to where she was _literally_ paralyzed by the emotion, and she forced her eyes open in time to witness a few purplish-black shadows careening towards her, and even though her mind screamed for her to either leap out of the way or to attempt to nullify the Shadow Sneak attack with an attack of her own, the woman's body remained frozen in place despite how much she yearned to obey her mind's frantic commands.

The attack sent her flying backwards, her momentum halted only when she felt her back slam into something hard, the breath knocked from her. She took a moment to try and regain her senses, forcing herself to take a deep breath before she glanced about, her movements slower than she had intended since her body was still trying to recover from this new bout of pain from being thrown against the trunk of a tree, and her amber eyes widened when she saw that her wrists were _pinned_ to the rough bark by the same purplish-black shadows that had knocked the breath from her, and now these shadows had taken the appearance of shackles.

The hollow laughter sounded again, this time from directly in front of the Weavile before the source of the eerie sound faded into sight.

The ghastly being was a Dusknoir, and by its large size, it was an ancient one -- a detail that the woman's superior had failed to inform her of. The Weavile had been sent to destroy the Ghost-type because it had been terrorizing a nearby clan of Raticates. She had been confident in her ability to deal with Ghost-types, since she had been training for _years_ to hunt down and destroy ones which were problematic to the living, but this particular one had proven to be too strong for her to take on by herself.

And now, she knew that she was paying the price for her foolish pride and overconfidence as the wraith narrowed its single blood-red eye at her before it raised an arm high above its head, its normally brownish-gray hand now glowing with an orange-white light, and from the way the ghost was keeping the appendage held straight rather than curling it into a fist, the woman knew that it was planning to finish her off with a Brick Break attack.

* * *

Within the rule-breaking confines of the Reverse World, the Dragon of Shadows continued his rounds within his domain and prison. Giratina was as adamant as always in testing the barriers of the Reverse Dimension to its limits, but he chose his options carefully. Although he could create portals a lot more easily than before (thanks to the fabric of space-time becoming dangerously unstable due to the clash of their respective Overseers years before), the fact that the Reverse World was still functional in preventing his escape was a factor to consider. He _could _manifest himself in the real world, but it was for a limited time only. And like the other previous attempts, he had to take a good long rest afterwards because of the strain on his powers.

Giratina passed by several partially frozen water pillars before, on second thought, he went back to them. The pillars, he knew, would dissipate into numerous water globules by the end of winter once the heat of spring melted the ice capping water bodies in the real world. They were not like the more permanent glacial columns in another point of the Reverse World, but just the same, Giratina was extremely reluctant about even viewing them. He did not want to reminisce about… about _that._ But this time was an exception; he could feel the space-time continuum to be quite weak there. He just might be able to get out for a while…

An ice crystal hovered nearby as Giratina touched down near the foot of a pillar. He studied the pictured scene within, and he made out the image of a snow-capped oak forest surrounding a lake. After several minutes of deliberation, Giratina decided that it was safe to cross over. Approaching the semi-frozen column, he gazed at his reflection on the surface for a moment before he held out his hand and sent out a bright whirlwind from his fingers, forming a trapdoor to the other dimension.

He failed to notice the image of a female Weavile and a Dusknoir in another nearby ice crystal as he entered the portal, bracing himself for another of his transformations.

* * *

'_At this rate, am I done for?' _the Weavile thought desperately. Finding that she couldn't bear to look at her enemy as it executed the finishing blow, she shut her eyes tight and turned away. She struggled against her bonds, despite knowing against reason that she could not get away. She _knew _she had to try until the very end…

All of a sudden, the wind, which was previously deathly still, whipped up its fury. Branches and ice shards alike were torn from their places and blown about. The woman flattened herself against the tree, praying that none of the flying objects would strike her. The Shadow Sneak shackles prevented her from shielding herself from the debris, but thankfully they kept her anchored to where she was. An agonizing wail cut through the chaotic melee of elements, almost making her scream back in reply. In her fear and confusion, it took a while for the Weavile to realize that it was the death-shriek of her captor Dusknoir, and with it gone, she felt the effects of Mean Look and Shadow Sneak lift. Once her limbs were freed, she quickly curled herself up at the base of the tree, wondering how on earth she was going to ride out this unnatural disturbance if it kept up.

Just when the Weavile thought she could take no more, the frenzied air began to give way to calm, only to be replaced by a bright light which made her squint and shield her eyes.

'_What in Darkrai's name is happening…?'_

Gradually, the light dimmed enough for the young woman to be able to open her eyes and see what was going on. What met her eyes was enough to make her forget about breathing for a moment.

The light, previously a formless cloud of endoplasmic material, began to constrict itself into a more definite shape. Soon, the Weavile found herself gazing at the figure of a tall male with flowing dark gray hair pulled up in a high ponytail. A golden circlet crowned his head, and he wore robes in colors of red, gray, black, and gold. His garments appeared to be patterned after the formal kimono a male warrior would wear, although she noted that the jet-black outer robe was considerably longer than usual, with hemlines sweeping the ground instead of just reaching the knees. But what was even more regal-looking than his attire was his face. The Weavile had seen some handsome-looking males before, but this one… to call him 'handsome' seemed like an understatement. Those well-formed features… those sharp ruby-red eyes with their smoky shadows… The language of words failed her as she stayed there transfixed, as though trapped by an invisible spell.

On his part, Giratina was too busy regaining his breath and bearings to realize that he was being watched. He always _hated _the fact that that he had to shed his more combative Origin Forme into the Altered one whenever he crossed over to the real world. Not only was his Altered Forme less designed for attacking than the one he assumed in the Reverse World, but the very act of transformation also tended to release a lot of Ghost-type energy, leaving him greatly drained afterwards. But as a legendary, even his weakened energy was usually more than enough to make mortals stay in line…

"My Lord, please accept this humble Weavile's allegiance as payment for saving her."

Giratina became alert at once. Out of instinct, his hands formed fists and from them he shot out blue flames of Will-o-wisp in the direction of the voice. A sharp gasp reached his ears, and he found himself narrowing his eyes at the figure of a woman picking herself up from the snow. Apparently, she dodged the Will-o-wisp in time, letting the tree behind her take the brunt of the attack. The Renegade did not lower his guard, even though he could see that she was already incapacitated enough to not be too much of a threat.

"What did you say?" he demanded, regarding the female coldly, still keeping his fist ready to launch another attack just in case he misjudged her condition.

"I…" the Weavile found herself whispering, keeping her eyes lowered to the ground even though she took the stance of her clan members whenever they make a formal promise. "I said that I would like to give my allegiance to you as thanks for saving me."

Her savior… She could hardly believe her eyes when she saw that he could also harness _that_ attack. It was then that she noticed… his aura was definitely that of a Ghost-type, although there seemed to be another element in him that she could not place yet. A _Ghost-type _saved her? Weaviles and their young Sneasels had always been viewed with disdain by the Ghosts, partly because of their elemental Dark-type advantage, and partly because the Sisterhood and their counterpart Brotherhood were -- and still _are _-- the prime Ghost hunters in the land. However, Ghost-type or not, the female Weavile knew that she owed the spectral male her life, and she will serve him well, with all her life, if it called for.

Giratina observed the female closely. He could already see that she was a Weavile judging by her clothes and manner of speaking, but he could not grasp the reasoning behind her words. _He, _the Renegade, the bane of Time and Space, saved something as insignificant as a Weavile? _What_ could she be thinking of?

"I _'saved'_ you?" he said with a mocking edge, a dark chuckle following his words. "I do not know what you are talking about, Weavile. You should be thankful that my mood is eager to spare you despite speaking to me about farfetched subjects. I suggest that you not show your face to me again, or my Shadow Force will be your last recollection of your insignificant life." He saw her shudder ever so slightly at his threat. Giratina was about to take his leave when, to his surprise, she answered back.

"Forgive me for being an annoyance, my Lord," the Weavile muttered, "but know that I shall always be ready to answer to your call. I am Kuro of the Sisterhood, and if ever you would need me, one word with any of my kindred would suffice to send me to your aid."

_Kuro_… Giratina let out a grunt. What's the point of remembering a name when the person attached to it is of no use to him? Turning his back on the Weavile, Giratina folded his dark robe around his form, and at once nothing was left of him but shadows which shortly dissipated into nothingness. Soon, except for the disarray of trees and snow, not a trace of the Ghost Dragon remained where he was just a few moments before.

Kuro shakily stood up from where she knelt on the snow. She stared for a long time at the spot where her mysterious savior was. Will she ever see him again? In spite of his cold reception towards her, she could not banish his image from his mind. He had won her admiration, and he does not even know it. He… who _is_ he, in the first place? She had only a few clues as to his identity. His regal looks… his power, strong enough to eliminate an ancient Dusknoir… his affiliation with shadows…

'"_Shadow Force", hmmm…'_ she thought to herself. Her Lord of Shadows… She will do all that she can… She would gladly delve deep into the lore of the Ghost-types, if it would mean a chance to see him again.

Giving vent to a heavy sigh, Kuro raised a gloved hand to push a few clumps of hair away from her face before she glanced down at herself, feeling the heat rising within her cheeks when she saw how scruffy and unkempt she appeared -- and in front of her Lord, at that! -- after her flight from the Gripper Pokémon that nearly claimed her life. She made little effort to brush the snow and leaf litter from her clothes, however, knowing that she should wait until she was back safely among her Sisters.

Ignoring the pain of her injuries, Kuro set about searching for the knives she had dropped, finding one near a bramble bush and the other lodged deeply into the trunk of another tree, and it took a few good tugs before she was finally able to dislodge the weapon. Something dark and wispy moving slightly out of the corner of her eye captured her attention, and the Weavile turned to see what appeared to be a piece of torn cloth snagged upon a bramble branch. Moving carefully, she managed to free the cloth without injuring herself upon the branch's sharp thorns, and upon closer inspection, Kuro realized that this piece of cloth had been a part of the Dusknoir.

'_Perfect..._' she thought to herself as she moved to tuck the cloth into the folds of her clothing so she wouldn't lose it on her way back to see her client, knowing that he would most likely want evidence that the deed had been done. After giving herself a few moments of rest, she began to slowly walk away from the clearing, though not without casting one final glance back at where the mysterious man clad within regal clothing had been mere moments before, silently vowing that she would do _anything_ to see the man again -- no matter what it takes.

* * *

"And last, but not least, we welcome Initiate Kuro into our numbers as a fully fledged member of our Sisterhood clan of warriors. Step forth, young one."

The young ninja took a deep breath before she slowly stood up from where she had been kneeling between two other initiates. This was the day she had been dreaming of -- _yearning for _-- ever since she first picked up a knife blade; however, there was a slight tightness in the pit of her stomach which only tightened as she neared where her sensei, the clan leader, Makura, was waiting to present Kuro with the obsidian medallion that would mark the completion of her training. Said feeling was caused by a sense of guilt which she could not shake ever since that night at the lake, where that mysterious Ghost-type had appeared and saved her from the very Dusknoir she had been tasked with destroying. The regal-looking man had killed the ancient Gripper Pokémon, _not_ Kuro herself even though she had presented the piece of Reaper Cloth to her current employer.

Nervously, the amaranth-haired Weavile raised a hand to brush her ponytail back over her shoulder before she began to move towards the center of the courtyard, head held high despite the ever-present guilt gnawing at her. There were _so many_ pairs of eyes upon her -- from youngling Sneasels to initiates both Sneasel and Weavile to fully fledged Sisterhood ninja warriors, but Kuro swallowed the urge to turn and flee from the courtyard, coming to a halt before her superior before she bowed her head and allowed the aging woman to slip the medallion around the newly made warrior's neck. Kuro raised her head, amber eyes opening to see Makura with her hands raised in front of her chest before the older Weavile gave of bow of respect, which the younger woman promptly returned before she turned and moved to her new place amongst the ranks of the other fully fledged ninjas.

Kuro's mind began to wonder as her sensei began reciting the ritualistic closing to this season's ceremony, and the woman's voice was nothing more than a distant blur of sound. Ever since that night at that lake over two weeks ago, Kuro had barely been able to keep herself focused upon anything but the man she had encountered. None of the books in the study had any information about him, although she did encounter a passage in an archaic book that seemed to describe Shadow Force in vague terms she could barely understand.

'_The Force that cloaks the aura in Shadow he calls, the Force that finds a warped likeness in the Roar that travels through Time and in the power that Rends the Space in which reality lives on...'_

It was the 'he' who called the Force that Kuro wanted. But the fact that the words 'Time' and 'Space' were mentioned on the same sentence gave Kuro a hint that he was _definitely _no ordinary Ghost-type. She knew Makura had a collection of tomes and scrolls which she kept private due to their rarity, only lending them out to students who promised to care for them, and even though Kuro knew that it was wrong, tonight she would sneak into the clan leader's private study in hopes that she would find something -- anything -- about her mysterious savior.

* * *

'_This is wrong, but it is something I must do..._' Kuro thought as she silently crept into her sensei's private study. Though she was edgy and nervous, years of training helped the young woman to stave these emotions as her amber gaze slid over the various tomes and scrolls, until they fell upon a rather thick volume which had nothing written upon the spine. Brow furrowing, the Weavile raised a gloved hand to carefully remove the tome from its place upon the shelf, and Kuro saw that the front cover was also completely blank, lacking both a title and an author. It wasn't until she had opened the book and turned to the second page that the title became known to her: The Ancient Pantheon: Gods and Goddesses of Shenu.

Taking great care so as to not tear any pages, Kuro slowly turned them, though she paused momentarily to smile at a painting of her clan's patron god, Darkrai. When she turned the page after the Life god, Ho-Oh, Kuro nearly dropped the book in shock. There, in her hands, was a painting of _him_ -- her shadow-clad savior.

"Giratina, god of Death, Void, and Ghosts, ruler of an alternate plane of existence known only as the 'Reverse World'..." Kuro silently mouthed each word as she read, her gaze occasionally drifting over to rest upon the painting of the regal Ghost-type. "Typing: Ghost and Dragon."

Dragon. So, _that_ was the other type within the energy Kuro had been unable to place until now. The pieces were all coming together now, and, with a smile, the ninja moved to gently trace a finger over the Ghost Dragon's facial features before she slowly, though hesitantly, closed the book and moved to set it carefully back upon its place on the shelf. After making sure that everything was as she had found it, Kuro quietly left the study, the feeling of guilt stronger than ever; however, she was glad that she now had answers about the man she couldn't stop thinking about no matter how hard she tried. He was a _deity_; no wonder he held such a regal visage! And he also needed mirrors and mirror-like surfaces in order to cross over into this world from the one he held sway over, hence why he had appeared at that lake the night she had met him.

It was then that Kuro made her choice - she would leave the clan of her birth despite the fact that only today she had finally become a fully fledged Sisterhood ninja, but she knew that the guilt of the outcome concerning the Dusknoir would eventually consume her if she were to remain here even one second longer, and she also knew that she would rather _not_ tell her sensei the truth and end up being demoted back to the rank of initiate.

She stopped briefly at her quarters to gather only a few meager belongings, mostly weapons and a few rations for her journey, before, with a heaviness in her heart which even outweighed her guilt, she allowed herself to take in the sights of where she had lived and grown up before she gave one final bow of respect. Holding back a heavy sigh, Kuro turned and quietly melted into the night.

* * *

'_Now what?' _Kuro thought to herself as she moved to sit in the shadow of an ancient evergreen which stood beside the rocky path she was currently taking. The sun was already high in the sky, so long had she been traveling. The cold feel of snow was a comfort to the Weavile, but it did little to drive away the questions in her mind. She had already forsaken her people and her home for a man she hardly even knew. And _how_ was she to find him in the first place? Mirrors and mirror-like surfaces… She _surely _couldn't scout them all hoping that he would manifest there for her.

A small puff of moisture left her lips as Kuro sighed softly. "At least I should give myself a destination for now," she said to herself, retrieving a map from the bag she carried.

She was so engrossed in studying the twists and turns of the piece of parchment that she failed to notice a stealthy black bird quietly making its way beside her. It wasn't until it dove within the bag containing her provisions that Kuro's ears perked up.

"Hey, _get off!" _she said, quickly grabbing hold of the bird by its tail and forcefully pulling it out of the canvas. There was no mistaking the crest on its head that resembled a hat, the sort a witch would wear. It was a Murkrow.

The little Darkness bird squawked and began to scratch at the woman with its sharp talons. Finally, after getting slapped many times on the face by furious Wing Attacks, Kuro was forced to loosen her hold on the Murkrow. It promptly flapped its way up the branches of the tree she was currently staying under, giving the Weavile a smug look.

"Annoying bird," Kuro muttered under her breath, stooping to gather the items that had spilled all over the snow due to the Murkrow raiding her belongings. She was about to return her medallion to the safety of her bag when something hit her on the back of her head. _"Ow!"_

Kuro was knocked to the snowy ground at once. Cursing slightly, she pushed herself up on one arm, looking about for her assailant. To her vexation, it was _yet the same _Murkrow, and this time it was hopping happily about the snow, holding something in its beak. Kuro's breath caught in her throat. The Darkness Pokémon was after her medallion.

"Give it back, _you..."_ Kuro snarled, her teeth bared as she pounced on the black bird. As though to annoy her, the Murkrow hopped this way and that, avoiding her hands as she tried to catch it and get her precious relic back. Her patience wearing thin, Kuro moved a hand over the snow, summoning the crystals to her fingertips to form shards which she promptly threw at the Murkrow. The damned avian was evidently caught off guard by the Ice Shard attack, and the cold icicles temporarily froze it on the spot.

"_That _will teach you to -- _OUCH!"_

The Assurance attack hit the young woman full force on the face, knocking her backwards. The Murkrow quickly turned and took off from the ground, her medallion still in its beak.

"_Come back here!"_ Kuro shouted furiously, stuffing the map haphazardly into her bag and slinging it over her shoulder as she went off in pursuit of the other Dark-type. The obsidian medallion was her only remaining link to her Sisters and her past; she would not yield it to some thieving avian so easily.

For a bird flying in the cold weather, the Murkrow had unusual stamina and speed. Despite all the years of training as a ninja, Kuro was beginning to tire after a long while of chasing the dark bird. The path was beginning to slope upwards, and running was beginning to get increasingly more difficult. Her side was beginning to cramp from all her efforts.

The Murkrow abruptly turned into a grove of leafless trees. Kuro, this time panting heavily and bent over her side to stifle the pain, walked after it. To her surprise, it turned out that the mischievous Murkrow wasn't a wild one after all. It flew to a dark cloaked figure crouched beside a fire with a small smoking cauldron suspended over it. The figure held out an arm, and the Murkrow alighted on it. Kuro caught sight of another Murkrow, this time on the figure's shoulder.

The Weavile was about to confront the unknown person to get back her medallion when the figure suddenly turned towards her.

"Shame got something precious from you, it seems?" an unmistakable female voice said. Kuro saw that beneath the hood was a face hidden by a white mask. The woman gently retrieved the relic from her pet's beak whilst slapping the bird lightly on the back. The Murkrow gave a slight squawk, and bowed slightly in what seemed to be an expression of guilt. "Silly creature. My apologies, my dear. I was just about to partake of my midday meal; would you join me to make up for the scare that I gave you?"

Kuro, however, stayed transfixed, astounded by the sudden turn of events. This woman... Kuro had heard of rumors of a white-masked wandering hermit-witch from her fellow initiates back when she was still training. It was said that she had helped many a lost or wounded traveler without charging any cost. She also happened to be very wise, and knew more about the lore of the Legendaries than any other person on the land.

The masked woman appeared to read Kuro's apprehensions, because she said, "I won't hurt you, child. Come, let's talk and I'll give you back your medallion."

Something in the woman's voice calmed Kuro down, and she slowly approached her. After she handed over the obsidian necklace to the Weavile, she motioned that she should sit across the fire. The cloaked female ladled what smelled like some good stew in two bowls, and gave one to Kuro along with a spoon. The Weavile didn't want to tarry long, but she couldn't refuse the other woman's hospitality, so, more out of respect than hunger, she began to sip the flavorful broth from the hermitess' cauldron.

"You are a Weavile, are you not?" the masked woman asked softly.

"Yes, I am," Kuro replied. "You... you can't be the Hermitess, can you?"

She laughed slightly before replying, "That isn't my true name, but I reckon I have gotten used to people calling me that. What brought you out here to this desolate road, Weavile? And so far from your Sisters, at that!"

"I…" Kuro lowered the bowl to her lap, a pensive expression spreading on her face. The Hermitess didn't miss it.

"Well, pretend you didn't hear my question, then," she said, cutting Kuro's unsaid reply off. "What you intend your path to be, and where you wish to go, is something only you could choose. Keep it secret, if you would, and I will not ask about it."

"Th-thank you," Kuro muttered uncertainly. Just then, a thought hit her. "Lady Hermitess, would you happen to know something about the Legendary Giratina?"

Something flashed in the Hermitess' eyes at the mention of the Ghost Dragon's name. Her tone attained a cautious edge to it as she spoke.

"You know of that name, young Weavile?"

"Why?" Kuro asked, suddenly confused. "What is so wrong about that?"

"Dark-types avoid speaking the Renegade One's name, especially your Sisters and Brothers. He is the very pinnacle of the Ghosts that your kin are so antagonistic towards, Giratina is. And fear of him does not come without reason. It has been said that he is strong enough to challenge the Overseers of Time and Space; even they are wary of him. Furthermore… he has been craving for vengeance."

"Vengeance?" The word left Kuro's lips in barely a whisper.

"It has something to do with the Lucario clan when the Aura users were still one," the Hermitess continued, after petting one of her Murkrows. "Something grave, indeed."

"Please, Lady Hermitess, tell me about it."

The enthusiastic edge in the Weavile's voice made the other woman raise an eyebrow. "I'm afraid it is something I would rather not tell you. But if you _should _know, the Western Lucario clan holds him in reverence. If there are those who exist to follow up on his whereabouts, and do not mind discussing that dark secret, _they _are whom you seek."

"Then I shall seek them out," Kuro said determinedly. She handed the near-empty bowl to the Hermitess whilst bowing deeply. "Thank you for the meal, but I must go."

"You..." the Hermitess whispered slowly. "You intend to seek Giratina, don't you?"

Kuro did not answer, but the look in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.

"Child, you do not know what you just entered," the Hermitess continued. "Turn back now while you still can."

"I'm afraid it is too late now, my Lady," Kuro answered. Steadying herself and her thoughts, which were all in an excited jumble at the new information she had gathered, she stood up and went on her way.

* * *

Kuro reached the village of the Western Lucario clan by nightfall. After an intense deliberation, Kuro decided not to reveal herself to any of the Lucarios or the young Riolus who populated the community. They were Fighting-types, after all, and attained a Steel Sub-typing as they grew older. She couldn't risk being caught in a brawl against those with a type advantage against her.

Getting straight to business, she sought the town's archives and snuck in, as effortless as a black shadow cast by the antithesis of Cresselia, the Lunar Goddess. Wasting no time, she immersed herself in the scrolls that spoke of the history of the Western clan's formation. She used no lamp to read, but rather a kind of luminescent crystal that did not shine as conspicuously as a flame. If any of the townsfolk saw a dot of lamplight in the otherwise deserted building, Kuro knew that she would be in trouble.

For a long time, she just read, not moving much but to move a page or to unroll a piece of parchment. When she was done, Kuro carefully replaced the priceless records back into the trunk which housed them. Her hands shook slightly as she closed the heavy lid.

'_He... he actually was capable of doing _that?' Kuro thought, the words of the ancient history repeating themselves in her mind. The Hermitess was right; something grim had transpired between the Renegade and the Lucario clan, so grave that it caused the once unified Lucarios to split. She had experienced a tidbit of Giratina's wrath back when they first met, but... was the one who carried out that… that _terrible_ deed really him? Kuro's rational side began to caution her to watch her steps because of the eminent danger she was walking into.

'_Forget him,' _her conscience told her. 'This _is the true face of Giratina. Your idealistic view of him is just a product of your mind... your _blinded_ mind!'_

But another fragment of the said history touched her heart. Giratina had practically become a prisoner within his own domain after the incident with the Lucario clan, manifesting in the real world only occasionally... until now. _Something _had caused Giratina to begin testing the seal actively once more. She could only imagine what pain he felt to be locked up after all the sovereignty he had enjoyed. Even after all that he had done, he _did not _deserve it, Kuro decided.

"He _did _save me," Kuro whispered to herself, shutting the voice from her mind. "Of _that, _I need no scroll to tell me."

* * *

Kuro lost track of the number of days she spent tracking down her Lord of Shadows. Most of the time, she had to rely on rumors that he had manifested here or there, and she would fly to the scene as quickly as she could, knowing all the while that she had missed him yet again. She spent her days close to lakes and other water bodies, wishing, _praying, _that she will see Giratina again. And in time, it seemed Wish-maker Jirachi had finally taken pity on her, and granted her what she wanted.

She had spent the entire day beside the same crystal lake where she first met the Renegade. By that time, Kuro was beginning to despair of ever setting eyes on her lord again, but as she prepared to leave, a familiar howling reached her ears. The turmoil rising among the trees was music to her ears, and she almost cried out with joy. At last! _At last!_

Kuro stayed behind the protective covering of a tree as she watched the portal taking form. Finally, she saw the white endoplasmic light emerge from the rip in the dimensions. She held her breath as she beheld him once more, as regal as the day she first saw him.

Not even waiting for the winds to settle down before she revealed herself, the Weavile stepped out of her hiding place and knelt before the Renegade on one knee with all the dignity that she could muster.

"My Lord…" But whatever words she had to say died in her throat. Her heart beat so quickly, she could almost hear it with her own ears. She was so happy, her voice refused to function properly.

Giratina narrowed his eyes at the female in front of him. "And just _who _are you to reveal yourself to me like this?" he whispered in a dangerous tone.

"P-please listen," Kuro said, her voice shaking, gathering her courage to look up at him. "We met before, here. There was a Dusknoir, and... and you saved me from it."

The Ghost Dragon tilted his head to the side, contemplating her words. Then he smiled a hard sort of smile. "I know you. That same Weavile…"

"Yes, I am _that _Weavile," Kuro replied, secretly relieved that he had remembered her at all despite the ominous look that had spread on his face. "And I am here to repay my debt. Please accept me as your ally, my Lord."

"_Debt?"_ Giratina repeated, letting out a derisive laugh. "I do not give aid unconditionally, and I gave you none. _Why _should I even accept _you, _a common Weavile, as my subordinate? Furthermore, I am suspicious of your motives. Only fools who do not know me would _dare_ cross my path."

"Please... you're wrong," Kuro whispered softly. "I _do _know who you are, Lord Giratina."

"If _my _name is all that you know about me, I have no further use of you," the Renegade answered quickly, proceeding to turn and readying to gather his shadowy cloak about his form. The young Weavile's voice, however, stopped him.

"_No, wait!"_

"What _is _it you want?" Giratina demanded, anger clear in his voice. This frustrating commoner was taking up his time, and he _knew _that time was a valuable commodity to him whenever he crossed over to the real world. Damn his blue-haired rival who controlled _that _aspect of reality…

"All… all I want is for me to serve you with the best that I could do," she pleaded. "Give me a chance, Lord Giratina, to prove my worth."

"Is serving me _that_ precious to you?" he replied, annoyance rising with every word. "Leave. I could kill you right now and turn you into a ghost like _that_ person..."

"It _is _precious to me, my Lord. And I know that you did turn that person into a ghost."

Giratina looked at her with disbelief. He had practically earned the animosity of most living creatures after that infamous act of his, but this Weavile... How could she say that she wanted to be of service to him and yet acknowledge _that _act of his in one sentence?

"So it seems," he said softly. "But unfortunately for you, I am not convinced."

Kuro was at her wits' ends trying to come up with an explanation to please her lord.

"Even though you did that," she replied, "you _saved _me, and that means more to me than anything that you could have done in the past, Lord Gira--"

"_Enough of this!"_ Giratina cut her off harshly. _That _statement sounded so eerily familiar to the one _she _had told him shortly before her _dratted _brother separated the two of them, and the bitterness it evoked in him was intense. Before he knew it, he had swiped at the Weavile with Dragon Claw, but she quickly leaped aside before the slash could cut her head off.

"Please, my Lord," the Weavile continued. Although he saw fear registered in her amber eyes, her voice was as resolute as ever. "Give me an order to prove my worth to you."

'_So she escaped my attack,' _Giratina thought to himself, already brought to the edge by the stubborn female. He was hesitant about using his powers for combat because he had just reverted to Altered Forme, and he couldn't risk tiring himself further. _'Might as well give in and get rid of her at the same time... with a fool's errand.'_

"Very well," he said quickly. "There is something you should obtain for me. Within Turnback Cave lies the Griseous Orb, and it will enable me to manifest in this world using the true form I take within my domain. If you succeed in bringing that orb to me, then I shall see you fit to carry out my bidding permanently."

The mention of Turnback Cave was enough to make a pit of horror open in Kuro's mind. That mysterious cave with a curious tie to the world of the dead... Even the most adventurous of ghost hunters avoided that place, and no one, but no one, had been able to fully navigate the cave with its powerful Ghost-types and warping doors. But she would do _anything_ to win his favor, and at once her mind was set to go to Turnback Cave and retrieve the orb he so valued.

"Thank you, Lord Giratina," Kuro replied, bowing deeply to the ground. "I shall not appear before you without the Griseous Orb at hand. But... how am I to find you once that happens?"

"That orb and I have a strong tie to each other," Giratina said simply. "I _will _know if it is out of Turnback Cave. And make sure to keep that word of yours. If you appear to me without the orb, I shall not hesitate to destroy you."

Kuro heard the swish of his cloak, and she knew that he had wrapped the shadows about him and disappeared, yet again. There were so many questions she would have wanted to ask him... look upon him much longer... but at least she had obtained the key that will enable her to be with him. It does not matter if she had to be his subordinate, _as long as she was with him.

* * *

_

Though she had secured the use of a Dodrio from a clan of Persians who dwelled not too far from the lake, even with the speed of the Triple Bird Pokémon which carried her it had still taken Kuro nearly a month's travel to reach the area in which the tales said that the entrance of Turnback Cave was located.

The Dodrio squawked uneasily, taking a few steps back as it shuddered, and Kuro knew she couldn't blame the near wingless avian for being so nervous. There was... _something_... about this place that made the hairs upon the back of the Weavile's neck stand on end even as she moved to hop down from the bird's back.

"Easy, Trio," she said softly as she turned to face the edgy bird, who only glared at her as if to say, 'Why the hell did you bring us _here_?'. The woman suppressed a sigh as she took a handful of berries from the pouch full of the fruit the handler had given her in order to keep the avian fed. She crouched, moving to set the pile of food a few feet away from the dual Normal/Flying Pokémon before rising to back off a few feet. "You don't need to go any farther now, and you may return to your handler once you finish your meal, understand? I would return you myself, but there's a chance I may not return, and I'd rather you not stay here in a strange place."

She was rewarded with a tri-voiced squawk from the three-headed creature before it turned its attention to the berries that had been set out for it, and immediately the three heads began to angrily squabble amongst themselves. Kuro barely managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes as she shook her head in dismissal of the creature's behavior before she turned her back on the bird and began to move towards the towering rock face in the distance.

* * *

Even with all her years of training, it had taken the ninja close to an hour and a half to scale the rock face, and when she had reached the top, she decided to pause for a short rest in order to regain her strength with a pouch of water and a trail ration. After stuffing the now empty contents back into her bag, the redhead rose to her feet, pausing only to brush dirt and bits of grass off her leggings before she walked closer to the edge of the rim and looked down -- to see nothing but an expanse of fog within the center of what appeared to be some sort of large hole or even a crater.

Though the scrolls and books she had read on the subject of Turnback Cave warned her that the place was shrouded in the stuff, they had never really been specific on _how_ _much_ fog there was. Narrowing her eyes, Kuro moved back from the edge before she produced a coil of around 100 feet of strong rope from her bag before once again shouldering it. Rappelling down would be far quicker than climbing down into the hole, and after a few minutes of searching, Kuro managed to find a sturdy rock which she tied one end of the rope around. After giving a few firm tugs in order to test the strength and durability of the knot she had tied, and finding that it didn't seem to be wanting to give out any time soon, the ninja moved into position before, with both hands firmly gripping the rope, she leapt down into the hole.

When her feet once again touched even ground, Kuro turned to see that the bottom of the hole held a lake, the surface covered by a pale gray fog. Despite its beauty, it still caused a chill to crawl down the woman's back as she gazed out over it for a few moments before she turned her attention to the entrance to the cave, which was only a few feet from where she had rappelled down. Again, tales of the cave and its many dangers raced through Kuro's mind, but she now had a task from her lord to undertake, and she swore that she would _not_ fail.

After digging around in her bag for a moment, she produced the luminescent crystal she had used to provide light back at the archives in the Western Lucario Clan's library and slipped the trinket around her neck. She then took a deep breath to steady herself before she moved to enter the cave.

* * *

'_Damned fog..._' Kuro thought angrily, gritting her teeth as she learned that with the crystal, she could only see a mere foot and a half around her. Holding back a deep sigh, the dual Dark/Ice ninja took a few steps forward in order to see if anything would happen. When nothing did, she shrugged and continued forward until a tall pillar suddenly loomed out of the fog before her, and she stopped to stand before the structure, keeping the luminescent crystal raised in order to see if anything was written upon the weathered surface. There was, and, brow furrowing, Kuro leant closer in hopes that what was written there (or parts of) would provide her with even one clue about how to navigate safely through this cave.

"... Past three pillars... offer up... to the... before 30 is surpassed..." Kuro gave vent to a soft growl as she gritted her teeth. "I _hate_ riddles..."

Casting one last glare at the rather odd pieces of message, the Weavile continued on, pausing yet again when she reached an opening in the wall. She knew that this place tended to mess with whoever dared attempt to reveal its secrets, so she needed a way to tell if she had been through rooms before or not, when a sudden idea hit her. Kuro raised a hand and placed the palm against the rock at the right side of the opening, and she concentrated, augmenting her natural icy touch to where the rock underneath and around her hand began to freeze over. She waited a moment before she slowly pulled her hand away, and then she moved to draw one of her knives before using the blade to strike a single mark in the ice.

For eight more rooms, Kuro continued to use this method not only to keep herself going in the right direction (or at least she _hoped_ it would help, anyway), but to help her keep count of how many rooms she had been through, for she remembered that if one passed through over a certain number of rooms, they would be taken back to the beginning and would be forced to start over.

The next room she entered held a pillar very similar to the one she had found back near the entrance of the cave. She forced herself to take a few deeps breaths in order to calm herself before she approached the pillar and held her crystal up towards the surface.

"... One and ten...?" Kuro blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion before she walked around the pillar twice, searching for something - anything - else that could be written upon the rocky surface. She gave vent to a long, drawn-out sigh when her examination came up with no new information, but then she remembered...

'_The mark!_'

After taking a few long moments to collect herself and to determine which way was north, Kuro approached what she hoped was the right door before she held her crystal up towards the wall to the right of the exit, and she felt both relief and fear when she saw that the rock _wasn't_ covered by ice. She raised her free hand to touch her palm to the rock in order to freeze it, but was stopped when a chill slid down her spine, causing the hairs upon the back of her neck to stand on end. It was a feeling she remembered from her days as an initiate amongst her Sisters, back when she was trained to detect the presence of Ghost-types who had hidden themselves from sight.

The Weavile concentrated, gathering a few shards of ice between her fingers before, in one quick motion, she pivoted upon the balls of her feet and threw the shards at where her senses suggested that the thing was hidden, somewhere in the room behind her. A shriek of pain came to her ears along with the sounds of the icy shards becoming lodged within rock, and using the luminescent crystal's light to guide her through the fog, the rogue ninja began to approach whatever she had managed to pin with her Ice Shard attack (or at least she hoped so, anyway), drawing one of her knives as she did so.

The sight of a Dusclops pinned against one side of the room's pillar soon greeted the Dark-type, and the creature was struggling, trying to free itself from the shards which now had it imprisoned. Kuro shuddered, unable to help herself from remembering that _this_ ghost was what could become a _Dusknoir_, the very ghost that had tried -- and had almost succeeded -- to kill her before, back when all of this had begun. Despite her unease, a small part of Kuro's mind found it odd that this was the _first_ Ghost-type she had seen here within Turnback Cave, as the tales about the place always spoke of it being inhabited by many ghosts. Up until now, she hadn't felt that she was being watched or followed, and she couldn't help but wonder: if this place did have more ghosts than just this one Dusclops, then where were they?

"Quiet!" she snapped when the Beckon Pokémon began pleading with her, or at least it _tried_ to, anyway. Kuro was barely able to understand the gibberish the ghost was spouting, which consisted of only its species name, and when the Dusclops ignored her command, the woman channeled black energy along the sharp edge of her knife before she raised it dangerously close to the Ghost-type. "I won't repeat myself again after this time, spectre: be quiet or you'll be ended by my Night Slash."

The single-eyed ghost stopped struggling, and merely hung there trembling and eying the weapon held so dangerously close to it. Part of Kuro's Dark-type nature wanted her to proceed with finishing the thing off, but logic stopped her from doing so. It wasn't natural for ghosts to be so frightened of the living, Dark-type or not, especially not _these_ ghosts.

"Now, is there a reason why you're the only ghost out and about?"

The creature nodded, or at least it looked like it did, anyway. Kuro gave a soft 'hmm' as a rather ridiculous idea came to mind.

"... If I release you, will you show me what's been bothering you?"

Another nod was given, and the creature went still as the ninja used her free hand to pull the shards of ice loose enough for the ghost to free itself. Silently, the Dusclops pushed itself away from the pillar before it began to float away, though not without stopping and turning back to face the Weavile before it beckoned for her to follow with a hand. The ninja complied, though she moved to unsheathe her second knife just in case the ghost was leading her into trouble or something along those lines. She ended up following the Dusclops through six more rooms, the last of which housed a pillar similar to the first two she had seen in the cave; however, Kuro didn't pause to study it since the ghost showed no signs of stopping, and she had to keep pace with it in order to keep from losing it within the fog.

The ghost finally came to a halt in the next room, which also housed a pillar; however, from what Kuro could see with the aid of her crystal, this room appeared to be more well-maintained than all the others she had been through. The woman took a moment to send a prayer to Darkrai, hoping that the Dusclops hadn't ended up leading her all the way back to the beginning, and she couldn't help but sigh in relief when she saw that the words engraved upon the rocky surface were similar to that which had been found upon the first pillar she had encountered after the garbled message upon the one in the room by the entrance:

"3 and 16... Huh..."

Kuro's investigation of the numbers was interrupted by the feel of something tugging on the hem of her left sleeve, and the Weavile turned her head to glower at the ghost, and she blinked when she saw that it was trembling, its single eye widened considerably. One of the hands closed into a fist save for the index finger, which was pointed at something Kuro couldn't see due to the fog. The Weavile opened her mouth to say something, but the words left her when the Dusclops suddenly turned and bolted.

'_If it was frightened enough to turn and flee, then whatever must be upsetting it is... in... here..._'

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of rock being crushed, as if something were digging through it, accompanied by the fact that the ground underfoot was _shaking_. Both the rumbling and the ground's shaking intensified, and Kuro had to brace herself in order to keep from being knocked off balance. She barely had time to reorient herself when a loud roar sounded throughout the room, and thanks to the help of her crystal and to the... thing... thrashing about, the fog was dissipated enough for the Weavile to be greeted by thirty feet of angry Steelix.

'_This must be what's upsetting the ghosts, but what is it doing_ here_?'_ she thought, eyes wide in a mix of fear, confusion, and wonder. Sure, this was an underground place of sorts, but there were no records of Steel-types residing in the Turnback Cave. Then again, nobody ever really lived long enough -- or remained sane long enough, for that matter -- to find out. Her thoughts were shattered by a low growl which reverberated throughout the room -- including Kuro herself -- and the woman was grateful that she still had her weapons drawn. She felt the hairs upon the back of her neck prickling, and she leapt backwards as far as she could, grateful that she had listened to her intuition when the loud _whoosh!_ of the Iron Snake Pokémon's tail swiping through the space she had occupied not a moment earlier greeted her limited vision, and she realized by the pale gray glow of the appendage that the beast had tried to dispatch her using an Iron Tail attack.

'_Damn this fog!_' the Weavile thought angrily, the grip upon her weapons tightening to the point that her knuckles had turned white. There was no telling where the monster could strike out at her from next, even though Kuro knew that she had an advantage when it came to speed. She forced herself to take a slow, deep breath, and she held it in for a few seconds before she slowly exhaled. She needed to stay calm if she were to have any hope of surviving this. She was here on a mission for her lord, and _no_ damned Steelix was going to stand between herself and her goal of completing it!

Another deep breath was taken, held for a few seconds, and released before the Dark-type crouched into a battle stance which also left her poised to leap away again if the serpent tried to strike at her with another Iron Tail attack. The ninja took the time to go over what she had learned about Steel-types back during her training: they were resistant to Dark-type attacks, but Steelix was affected normally by Ice-type attacks due to its Ground sub-typing. Kuro had mostly the former in her arsenal, but she still had Ice Shard, and one other offensive move she had learned after her near death experience with the Dusknoir...

The Steelix snarled as its attack missed the two-legged creature who dared to not only intrude upon its territory, but she was most likely after the trinket the Steelix's master had asked it to guard long ago. The beast had carried out these orders well (or at least it thought so, anyway), going to the lengths of killing those who dared venture this far within these caves. It had even undertaken its own self-given task of keeping all of the stupid ghosts who lived here away from this room which it had learned to call home.

The iron serpent glanced about, determined to pinpoint the location of the two-legged creature within the damned fog, and the Steel-type's eyes narrowed when it saw her crouched near one of the walls, and, wasting no time, it lunged, flames beginning to manifest around its teeth in a Fire Fang attack. It gave vent to a low growl when it felt its attack connect, and the monster bit down, waiting for the death-shriek of the intruder -- which never came. Instead, the Steelix now felt that whatever it had bitten was very, _very_ cold, and it roared in anger when it saw the visage of the intruder fade -- to nothing but ice!

From her place hidden amongst a cluster of large boulders, Kuro remained crouched as she saw the serpent fall for her Substitute. She shook her head, trying to beat back the tiredness which always set in whenever she had to resort to using the defensive ability. As she watched, the Steelix shook its head and began to spit, no doubt trying to rid itself of the discomfort from the ice in its maw. It was now that Kuro saw her chance, and she wasted no time in sprinting towards where she hoped that the serpent still was. The fog was beginning to drift in around there again, so she had to move quickly before she completely lost sight of the thing. The Weavile made use of her natural grace and agility when she paused for a few seconds in order to crouch and gather her strength into her legs before she pushed off from the ground, flipping once before she felt her feet making contact with something hard, and the light from the crystal around her neck revealed that she was now upon the back of the creature's neck, behind the head.

Moving quickly, Kuro brought both knives up in front of her, the blades beginning to take on a brownish-orange glow before she struck, making sure that, in order to avoid losing one or both of her knives, it was the flat edge of the weapons that struck the serpent as Kuro executed Brick Break. It was an attack she utterly _despised_, since the Dusknoir had nearly killed her with it, but Kuro had forced herself to learn it shortly after that experience, just in case of a situation like this. She winced when the creature screeched in pain, and she found herself knocked from her perch when the snake dashed itself against the wall in order to throw her off.

"Ah!" She felt the wind knocked from her lungs when she hit the ground, landing upon her back, and she saw the monster looming over her, eyes narrowed maliciously as it glowered down at her. Kuro forced herself to leap to her feet despite the pain in her back and right shoulder, and she dropped both her weapons before she reached into a small pouch she wore upon her belt, withdrawing a couple of small _metsubushi_, which she hurled at her opponent's face when it lunged at her again. She was greeted with yet another screech from the Steelix, and she saw by the way it was shaking its head and blinking that the items had disoriented it. The ninja took what precious time she had been granted to retrieve her knives before she disappeared back into the fog. If the Steelix wanted to kill her so badly, it would have to search for her _and_ she would give it not one but _many_ targets to choose from -- with a catch, of course...

The metallic serpent snarled and shook its head, not happy with the fact that this diminutive pest was giving it so much trouble. A low growl rumbled deep within its throat as it glanced about, trying to catch sight of the little pest through all this stupid fog. A flash of amaranth out of the corner of its eye caught the beast's attention, and it struck out with its tail at where it had seen the little creature, eyes narrowed in triumph when it saw its Iron Tail attack connect with her, but instead of being knocked through the air, the two-legged pest _disappeared_! A roar mixed in between rage and frustration was given before the Steelix began randomly lashing out with its tail, fed up with this game of cat and mouse...

From her place behind the pillar, Kuro watched as the metal serpent begin madly thrashing about, determined to rid itself of having to deal with the faux images of her Double Team ability, and when she saw the massive head turn towards where she was, the Weavile once again ducked behind the pillar. She flinched when she heard the beast slam into it, and her eyes widened when she saw cracks beginning to form in the rock structure when the Steelix slammed itself into it again and again. It would probably end up bringing the entire room crashing down around them both if it didn't stop, and Kuro had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from crying out when she heard the pillar snap and break, and she bolted away just in case gravity decided to be fickle and cause the structure to fall towards _her_ rather than towards the one who had caused it to break in the first place. She _did_ cry out when she was knocked off balance by the pillar crashing to the ground, and a shriek from the serpent came to her ears not a moment later.

Forcing herself to ignore the pain of her tiring body, the Weavile pushed herself to her feet. She coughed a bit from the dust that had been thrown into the air, and when she looked about, she noticed that much of the fog had been dissipated for the moment. It was then that she saw the metal snake pinned underneath not only the pillar, but also under a number of large pieces of stalactites which it had knocked loose from the ceiling, and even though it was no longer moving, she was unable to tell if the thing was still alive or not. Pushing back her fear, Kuro forced herself to approach the trapped Steel-type, and when she drew closer, she saw that the creature's _head_ and part of its upper body was what had been pinned underneath the pillar.

'_So you succeeded in defeating yourself, eh? Poor fool..._' she thought, noticing that what she could see of the serpent was dented and chipped in places, though a good number of these injuries appeared to be older ones. She came to a halt beside the creature, and she took a few moments to listen for breathing before she moved to sheath her weapons. Though she had heard no signs of breathing or even of a heartbeat, she wanted to make completely sure that the thing was indeed no more. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder and back, Kuro raised her hands before she placed the palms of them against the serpent's metallic skin. She began to concentrate, augmenting the effects of her natural icy touch to where ice began to spread over the area she was touching and nearby. Only when the ice also covered the part of the pillar which was nearby did she cease channeling the element before she moved to pull her hands away. The rogue Dark-type was about to turn and walk away before she narrowed her eyes, wordlessly drawing both knives once again before she began to concentrate, the blades taking on the same brownish-orange glow they had earlier before Kuro brought them down upon the metal serpent's now frozen head, the force of the Brick Break more than enough to cause both the coating of ice and the frozen metal beneath to crack and shatter. If the creature hadn't been dead before, it most certainly was now.

Sighing, Kuro once again sheathed her weapons before she turned to walk away, but something nearly as pale gray as the fog caught her attention, and Kuro turned her head to see some kind of cloth tied around one of the long protrusions that marked the snake's body. Brow furrowing, the Dark-type moved to stand beside this part of the creature's body before she moved to pull the cloth away, only to discover that it was some kind of clan banner when she smoothed it out. The symbol depicted was that of a teardrop.

'_A teardrop against gray...?_' she thought, staring down at the symbol, her eyes narrowing as she remembered what she had read about in the archives of the Western Lucario clan. '_Lucario... _Eastern_ Lucario..._ _So, somebody from that clan had charged this Steelix with guarding the Griseous Orb..._' The woman pursed her lips as she gave the banner a second once-over before she folded the cloth and tucked it into the pouch upon her belt alongside her medallion, which she had moved from her pack a few hours after the Murkrow fiasco (a happening which now seemed so long ago), and more of her _metsubushi_, as she made a mental note to show the banner to her lord once the Griseous Orb was safely returned to him.

Without even so much as a last look towards the dead Steelix, Kuro held up the luminescent crystal, allowing its light to guide her as she slowly made her way out of the ransacked room. She paused when she came to a doorway, in order to recollect her bearings, before she passed through and emerged into a room which had yet _another_ pillar in the center. This pillar, however, was thicker in width than the last three had been and appeared similar to the pillar found near the entrance of the cave. Despite the pain of her body, Kuro quickened her pace to that of a light jog, only halting when she was standing in front of the pillar, and her eyes widened when she read the message engraved within the rock:

_**This is... That where life sparkles... That where life has faded... A place where two worlds overlap...**_

"A place where two worlds overlap..." the Weavile whispered to herself, and she lowered her gaze towards the base of the pillar, where she found a hollowed-out depression. Her brow furrowed as she knelt, ignoring the pain of her injuries as she held the crystal up closer to the opening. When she wasn't able to see much more than without it, Kuro took a deep breath before she raised a hand and reached in, her fingers brushing against something hard before her hand closed around it, and she heard the faint tinkling of a chain as she pulled her hand out of the depression before she moved to inspect what she now held.

If what she was holding was the Griseous Orb, then it didn't appear to be an orb at all; in fact, the golden-yellow surface was rough, like that of a raw, uncut jewel. It was around the same size as the crystal she wore around her neck, and, like it, the Orb had been fashioned into a pendant, a fine golden chain dangling from one end of the jewel. The woman's inspection was cut short by a flash of light near the back of the room, and Kuro slowly rose to stand when she noticed that a good portion of the pale fog was now illuminated by a dark purple light. Cautiously, the rogue moved towards the source of the strange light, and she gasped when she saw what appeared to be some sort of portal close to the back wall of the room.

'_A place where two worlds overlap... Could this be... a gate to the Reverse World...?_'

She paused about a foot or so away from the portal before she raised her free hand, her movements slow and cautious before she moved to stick her hand into the swirling cloud-like mass. She left her hand there for a moment before pulling it back, and she released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding till now when she saw that it was still intact. Kuro felt her heart rate increase as she summoned every ounce of courage and leapt through the portal, and when she felt her feet touch down upon a stable surface, the woman opened her eyes and her breath caught in her throat at what she saw.

If this was indeed the Reverse World, then it was _breathtaking_. The ninja couldn't help the smile that chose to appear upon her lips as she slowly took in her new surroundings. There didn't seem to be any true ground; instead, there were landmasses, like the one she was now standing at the edge of, here and there. What must have been the sky was a clear shade of pale blue, like the sky on a clear midwinter's morning, and she noticed that it and the landmasses formed a perfect mirror of each other, as if somebody had copied them and stuck them together, with one side upside down.

Kuro stood there, holding the Griseous Orb against her chest above her heart before she raised her free hand and removed the band she used to keep her dark red hair tied back, allowing it to fall around her neck and shoulders and down her back before she ran her hand through it a few times in order to smooth it out, leaving the twin braids which fell over her shoulders alone. Her attention shifted when she saw what appeared to be pillars formed of ice in the distance, oblivious to the shadow which fell over her until a hand clamped down upon her shoulder.

* * *

Giratina sat up at once upon feeling the familiar call of the Griseous Orb. It had been _so long _since he last set his eyes on the relic that enabled him to retain Origin Forme outside the Reverse World, and he knew that the orb was anticipating the end to its dormancy as well. Now he was closer than ever to achieving his goal of revenge...

But a sudden thought dampened his feelings of elation. If the Griseous Orb was out of Turnback Cave, then it meant that _that _Weavile he had tasked to obtain it and hopefully die in the process had succeeded. _How _could a mere commoner have done it? It wasn't how he had planned it! And to consider that he had given his word that he would take the ninja into his service if she did her job properly...

Shaking his head in annoyance, Giratina wasted no time and exited his fortress, intent on tracing the source of the Griseous Orb's vibrations. There was no way the orb could have gotten into the Reverse World on its own, as it was not a sentient being. The female Weavile was _in _the Renegade's world, but how she did it was something Giratina had to find out. Only one other person had gotten into the Reverse on her own...

'_In the name of... Why did she have to manifest _there?_' _the Ghost Dragon thought with double exasperation when he realized that the vibrations led to a point near the ice pillars. He _hated _going there, but he had to harden his resolve for the sake of the orb he wanted.

It only took the Renegade a few seconds before he spotted the foreign figure standing on one of the landmasses. He frowned, for he knew that his fears were realized. The woman had survived and was alive, and to make things worse, she was in his domain.

With the stealth of a shadow, Giratina levitated himself behind her. She did not even notice him approaching, for she was looking intently at the icy columns which formed supports for glaciers in the real world. Only when his hand made contact with her shoulder did she react, turning sharply and taking on an offensive stance before she realized who he was. And when she did, her eyes widened and she hastily gathered her unbound hair over her shoulders before she fell on her knees in a gesture of submission. Giratina himself recoiled his touch from her almost at once. She was an Ice-type, and her typing caused her to exude chill on contact. His part Dragon-typing was hostile to the cold, but it wasn't as if the Ghost in him did not regard her primary Dark-typing warily enough…

"And just _what _do you think are you doing here?" Giratina said softly, but with an edge of ominous authority.

The Weavile took a moment to phrase her reply.

"Lord Giratina, I… I bring you the Griseous Orb," she said, holding out the golden trinket with its fine chain to him.

Giratina eyed her warily before he took the relic from her hands and inspected it. Yes, it was the Griseous Orb, the real one.

"There's another thing, my Lord," she continued, retrieving a piece of cloth from her belt pouch and unfolding it before him. Giratina's eyes narrowed upon recognizing the symbol portrayed on the fabric.

"The Lucario Clan of the East," he said with an audible hiss of abhorrence. "So it's true; _they've _been keeping the orb from me. Foolish thing to do. The only thing they succeeded in doing is kindling my wrath further."

Kuro stayed silent, letting her lord's voice flow into her ears. She kept her head bowed, partly to hide the fact that she was blushing. Giratina caught her off-guard, and with her hair down, at that! She looked a tad weaker… more _vulnerable_... with her hair unbound, and she did not want others -- let alone _him _-- to see her that way, lest they think she was a useless shred of life. Although his tone scared her slightly, he was being comparatively civil to her, and she took it as a good sign. After a moment of silence, she nearly jumped when she realized that he was addressing her again.

"So… you succeeded in what I ordered you to do," he whispered, taking care to keep his voice emotionless to hide his surprise that she had done so. "Quite curious, I must say. Answer me one thing: how did you enter the Reverse without my aid?"

"A portal," Kuro replied, exerting some effort to keep her voice from shaking. "Turnback Cave opened up a portal just after I found the Orb, Lord Giratina."

Giratina took a moment to look around and feel if the dimensional warp still existed. He could find not a trace of it. Either it had closed, or it was one-way, and could be accessed only from the outside world.

"Then that answers the question," the Ghost Dragon said whilst tucking the Griseous Orb within the fold of his robes. Kuro then realized that he was in a different garb than the ones she had seen him wear back in the real world. Even though he still wore his hair in a high ponytail and donned his signature shadowy outer cloak, his robes and headgear were more streamlined, making him look taller and more imposing. He looked like the deity that he was, indeed.

"... Then you give me no choice but to accept you as my subordinate."

Kuro blinked several times. She was so engrossed in observing her lord that she allowed her mind to stray and not pay attention to his words. But she _did _catch the final statement, and before she could help it, the young ninja looked up at him with an expression of joy that lit up her otherwise emotionless facade. Giratina did not miss it. In the brief moment that her amber eyes met his fierce ruby ones, her expression, along with the backdrop of the ice pillars, unconsciously made him recall the image of a woman… pale of skin, long dark purple hair fluttering slightly in a breeze, stern ruby-red eyes softened by the light of the stars which surrounded her.

_Stars..._

One of which... she had let him hold.

Giratina tore his gaze off the Weavile, frowning deeply and inwardly cursing the red-haired young woman for causing him to relive such memories. He sharply turned and said gruffly, "Follow me to my fortress. I'd rather that I give you your next assignment there than _here. _Nothing is as dismal as this place."

Kuro tilted her head slightly to the side at the sudden turn of his words. Nothing could be as depressing as the place they were in at the moment? She was puzzled, for she could see nothing wrong with her surroundings. She could not yet claim to understand Giratina, but his sense of mystery was precisely what drew her to him in the first place. And now that he had accepted her, she would not abandon him. Her deep value for loyalty will assure that.

"As you wish, my Lord," she said, bowing deeply. Hurriedly tying her hair back once more, she stood up and followed the Ghost Dragon to his lair in the world where the laws of reality come undone.

* * *

_Metsubushi_ -- 'Eye Closers'. Sometimes referred to as "Black Eggs". A small, easily concealed item used by ninjas for self defense or for a distraction in order to escape. These items were hollowed out eggshells, small tubes, or other things filled with a powder consisting of substances ranging from ashes, ground-up pepper, dirt, and even glass shards or salt.


End file.
